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Description: Bangladesh is one of the poorest and most densely-populated countries in the world, yet it has achieved impressive progress since its independence in 1971. With a vibrant economy that has grown at ...

Bangladesh is one of the poorest and most densely-populated countries in the world, yet it has achieved impressive progress since its independence in 1971. With a vibrant economy that has grown at nearly 6 percent per year in the last decade, Bangladesh has seen the number of poor drop by one-third during the same period.
In this remarkable journey, the World Bank has enjoyed a strong relationship with Bangladesh that spans four decades. It has supported Government efforts in economic growth, power, infrastructure, disaster management, human development and poverty reduction. Since 1972, the World Bank has committed more than US$ 16 billion to advance Bangladesh’s development priorities.
This publication provide a glimpse of the ongoing World Bank projects in Bangladesh and showcase an important partnership aimed at creating opportunities for the disadvantaged, the poor and the vulnerable. It conveys what the World Bank have come to learn through many years of engagement with this dynamic and resilient country—that with strong commitment, sound policies and effective government, Bangladesh has enormous potential to offer its people a better, brighter future.

FOREWORD
Bangladesh is both an inspiration and a challenge for policymakers and practitioners of
development. It is one of the poorest and most densely-populated countries in the world,
yet it has achieved impressive progress since its independence in 1971. With a vibrant
economy that has grown at nearly 6 percent per year in the last decade, Bangladesh
has seen the number of poor drop by one-third during the same period. Today, more
Bangladeshis are living longer, healthier lives, and more children are stepping into
classrooms. With higher income, better infrastructure and healthier and more educated
citizens, Bangladesh now aspires to become a middle-income country by its fiftieth
anniversary in 2021. It is an ambitious goal to be sure, but within reach.
In this remarkable journey, the World Bank, through its concessional lending arm,
has enjoyed a strong relationship with Bangladesh that spans four decades. It has
supported Government efforts in economic stability and growth, power, infrastructure,
disaster management, human and social development and poverty reduction. Since
1972, the World Bank has committed more than US$ 16 billion to advance Bangladesh’s
development priorities and accounted for more than a quarter of disbursed aid in the
country.
While the poverty reduction efforts to date have been extraordinary, Bangladesh still
faces daunting challenges on the path to prosperity. About 47 million people—nearly
one-third of the population—continue to live below the poverty line. To realize its vision
of becoming a middle-income country, sustained reform efforts are needed to tackle the
many development bottlenecks. These range from strengthening governance, narrowing
the power and transportation gaps, reducing vulnerability to external shocks and
managing urbanization, among others.
For the World Bank, Bangladesh is also a key player in contributing to the global goals
of reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity by 2030. The pages of this publication
provide a glimpse of the ongoing World Bank projects in Bangladesh that seek to
address some of the most pressing obstacles to achieving these goals. They showcase
an important partnership aimed at creating opportunities for the disadvantaged, the poor
and the vulnerable. It is my hope that these pages convey what we have come to learn
through many years of engagement with this dynamic and resilient country—that with
strong commitment, sound policies and effective government, Bangladesh has enormous
potential to offer its people a better, brighter future.

Education provides children with the basis for
attaining dignity, better livelihoods, and a better
quality of life when they grow up. By developing
children’s latent capabilities, it contributes to
a skilled workforce and acts as a powerful tool
for reducing poverty and boosting economic
growth in the future. The Third Primary Education
Development Program (PEDP III) aims to support
the government in improving the quality of
education as well as increasing the net enrolment
and completion rates in primary education.

Bangladesh has made remarkable progress
in primary education. Enrolment rate is above
90% and gender parity has been achieved. The
sector is large with more than hundred thousand
institutions, about 16.5 million students and more
than 3 hundred thousand teaching staff. Despite the
progress, only close to 70 percent of the children
enrolled complete grade 5 and among them only 44
percent go on to the secondary level. Children drop
out mainly as they cannot afford tuition, books and
other educational materials or live too far from the
school. The quality of education is also a concern.
Many schools are still overcrowded, teacher
qualifications and motivation remain low and exams
test mostly memory recall.

4

Approach

Results in Numbers

PEDP III builds on the experience of previous programs.
It aims to enhance the quality of teaching in Bangladesh,
and to reduce disparities in access and learning in primary
education. PEDP III stands out from previous programs as
its financing is linked entirely to results being achieved on
the ground. Funds are disbursed when key targets, known
as Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs), are met. All
nine Development Partners (ADB, AusAID, CIDA, DFID,
EU, JICA, SIDA, UNICEF and the World Bank) have agreed
with the Government to a common results framework.
The DLIs cover nine areas which are a subset of the
Government’s program for primary education. The DLIs for
quality enhancement cover: development of an 18- month
Diploma program and teacher training in this program;
development and incremental introduction of competency
based examinations; merit based teacher and head teacher
recruitment and timely distribution of textbooks (within a
month of the start of the academic calendar), including an
updated curriculum. The DLIs aiming to support reduction
in disparities include the widespread introduction of preprimary education especially in disadvantaged areas, needs
based infrastructure development to reduce overcrowding
and to improve the quality of the facilities and school level
planning. DLIs are also set for enhanced sector financing
and effective monitoring. This new method of funding not
only ensures that the program targets are met, but also
seeks to make the achievements sustainable.

96.8% primary school enrolment rate and
73.8% completion rate.
More than
recruited.

13,000 trained teachers

100

million text books distributed by first
month of the academic years to more than 85%
schools.

25% of the primary completion exam
converted to competency based.

8

Out of the 9 DLIs for each year,
achieved for the
first year and 7 for the second year to date.

As a highly innovative sector-wide program PEDP
III is expected to contribute to Bangladesh’s longterm objective of human capital development
for sustaining poverty reduction and economic
growth. Over time all alternative, second-chance
education type interventions are meant to be
mainstreamed into the regular PEDP program.

Bangladesh has made significant progress in
education over the past two decades. Still, many
school-aged children from the poorest families
in Bangladesh either do not enroll or discontinue
school due to poverty. The Reaching Out- of- School
Children II (ROSC II) project aims to reduce the
number of out-of-school children through improved
access, quality and efficiency in primary education,
providing disadvantaged children an opportunity
to complete grade 5 and transition to secondary
education.

In 2004, nearly 1.5 million primary school-aged
children were out of school in Bangladesh. The
government’s program focused on the formal
primary sector that supported about 17 million
students and still many children were out of
school. These were the children who had missed
out schooling at the “right age” or had been forced
to drop out, mainly because of poverty. Many could
not afford to buy uniforms or books, to pay for
transport if they lived far from the school or might
have been needed to earn vital income to feed the
family. As a consequence, these children were
deprived of education which drastically reduced
their chances of finding higher- earning jobs that
could lift them and their families out of poverty.

6

Approach
ROSC II is built on the success of the first ROSC project
that provided a second chance for primary education to
nearly 780,000 poor children in 23,000 ROSC Learning
Centers in 90 low-income upazillas. ROSC reintegrates
out-of-school children into education through learning
centers, called Ananda Schools (schools of joy), which
provide education stipends to underprivileged children to
lessen the burdens on their families as well as distribute
free books, stationeries and school uniforms. The Ananda
Schools are established in upazilas with high poverty and
low enrolment and completion rates. These schools blend
formal education with a non-formal mode of provision with
support from NGOs, earning Bangladesh international
acclaim for its excellence. The schools run differently
from normal primary schools: ROSC students tend to
be older (between 8 and 14 years of age) than regular
primary school students, students and teachers follow
a flexible school timing to suit their mutual needs, and
students are taught by a single class teacher, till they are
ready to appear for the Grade 5 examination and can then
join the mainstream secondary schools. In 2012, 83% of
ROSC students passed the national grade 5 examinations,
setting themselves on the road to progress to secondary
level education. The project also attempts to empower
disadvantaged rural communities to establish, own and
manage their own Ananda Schools with support from the
government and the local education NGOs. 80% of all
ROSC school teachers were women and close to 90% of

all school management committee heads were women as
well. ROSC II will continue to support students in currently
operational Ananda Schools established in 2010 and 2011
to enable students to complete grade 5; and scale up the
operation in another 100 new upazilas. The project will
also pilot similar initiatives in selected urban slums and
for domestic workers, and a pre-vocational skills training
scheme for older ROSC students. A major emphasis of
ROSC II is on enhancing the quality of education provision
to disadvantaged children through increased attention to
teacher development, teaching-learning support as well
as on having an elaborate system of monitoring these
activities in the remote and disadvantaged areas through
the use of information and communication technologies.

Expected Results by 2017

720,000 children in 148 most disadvantaged

and remote upazilas brought back to school.

50% of these children will be girls.
85% student attendance rate and 78%

completion rate for Ananda School children.

12000 children benefitted from urban slum

pilot.

Towards the Future

My daughter now goes to the
Ananda School. I am happy, we
the women, have a say in our
children’s education —

ROSC’s success in demonstrating that informal
channels can be used to deliver basic education has
created demand throughout the country. Consequently,
the Government has accepted the ROSC model for
provision of non-formal education to the out-of-school
children in the rest of the country under the Primary
Education Development Program III (PEDP III).

Thanks to a series of measures taken over the
last couple of decades, more children than ever
before, especially girls, are now continuing their
education at the secondary level in Bangladesh.
However, it still remains a challenge for the
children from low-income families to have
access to good quality education. The Secondary
Education Quality and Access Enhancement
Project (SEQAEP), implemented since 2008, aims
to improve the quality of secondary education and
to increase access and equity among poor boys
and girls, including those living in remote areas.

Prior to 2008, the primary school completion rate
was 50 percent, and fewer of these children moved
onto secondary education. Only one in 5 children
entering Grade 6 managed to complete Grade
10. Income played a crucial part in the education
of a child as gross enrolment rate for the richest
50 percent children was 75 percent but enrolment
for poorest 50 percent was only 38 percent.
Simultaneously, while there has been a significant
enrolment growth for poor girls during the recent
years supported by a range of female stipend
programs, the enrolment levels for poor boys have
remained stagnant. Moreover, due to a lack of
systematic learning assessments at the primary
and secondary levels, the quality of teaching has
been difficult to assess.

8

Approach
To address these challenges, the Government of
Bangladesh launched SEQAEP in 2008, with the
support of World Bank. SEQAEP provides proxy meanstested stipends and tuition to disadvantaged girls
and boys as well as incentives to students, teachers
and schools in 125 upazilas so that they can perform
better. Students eligible for the stipend receive from
US$ 15 to US$ 40 a year, depending on their grades,
and benefits are conditional on students maintaining
75 percent average attendance, achieving a passing
grade in final examinations, and remaining unmarried
until they complete Grade 10. An initiative has been
taken through the Bishwa Sahitya Kendra, a reputed
literary and cultural education institute of the country,
to improve students’ reading habits, side by side with
measures to provide water and sanitation facilities
in schools and strengthen their management and
accountability systems. All SEQAEP schools have
parents-teachers associations (PTAs). Teachers are
being trained in English and Mathematics, institutions
are now offering additional classes to improve English
and Math skills of their students, and financial rewards
are also being given to those teachers who achieve
pass targets of over 70 percent of the class and to
institutions that consistently increase the number

of students appearing in and passing the Secondary
School Certificate (SSC) examination. The introduction
of internationally recognized assessments is expected
to both allow a quantitative analysis of these measures
and enhance their impact.

Results in Numbers
An increase in the share of poor children in total
secondary enrolment to
30% in 2008.

38% in 2012, up from

2.3

million students benefit from SEQAEP, 54%
of them girls in 6,700 secondary schools.

20% increase in secondary school enrolment due
to stipends, especially among poor children.

46% of students graduating from secondary
school, up from 30%.

270,000 students benefitted from the
incentives awards.

107,000 additional classes conducted.
940,000 students benefitted from the reading
habit development program.

By the time I reached Class 9 all four of
my siblings were in secondary school.
It would have been impossible for my
father, a farmer, to pay our tuition fees
but for the stipend — Parvin, a student.

At present, SEQAEP is active across one-third of
Bangladesh. The SEQAEP experience and results are
expected to contribute to improving the overall quality
of education in Bangladesh and a more effective and
systematic targeting of poor children for widening
their access to education.The approach is likely to be
replicated nationally.To deepen the impact of successful
project interventions, particularly the PMT scheme, the
Government and the World Bank have jointly agreed to
prepare SEQAEP Additional Financing (AF) project with
scaled-up coverage of schools and upazilas and project
extension to 2016.

To ensure better employment opportunities
for the Bangladeshi labor force, in both
local and overseas job markets, skills
development and vocational education have
to be aligned with the market demand. The
Skills and Training Enhancement Project
(STEP) aims to strengthen public and
private training institutions, also known
as polytechnic institutes, to improve the
quality of skills training and employability of
trainees, both at home and abroad, including
those from disadvantaged socio-economic
backgrounds.

In recent years, remittance from migrant workers has
been a driving force of the Bangladesh economy. However,
Bangladeshi migrant workers, who speak little English,
have poor basic formal education and few vocational
industry-specific skills, often face severe job insecurities.
They are usually the first to lose their jobs as the economies
of the popular migrant destinations begin to experience
any economic recession. They also fail to avail themselves
of the better jobs that require higher skills. Even at home,
their lack of relevant skills and a mismatch between
supply and demand leads to very poor employability and
lower wages for them. Furthermore, the recent increase in
the demand for skilled labor, both nationally and globally,
continues to pose a threat to the Bangladesh economy as
the skill-base of workers here is severely limited.

10

52,000

diploma students from 93 polytechnic
institutions received stipends.

43 out of 93 polytechnics are public institutions.
30 polytechnics selected for implementation grants

24,000 trainees received training from these
training providers, 25% of them being women.

Towards the Future
The project will introduce key reforms at the institutional
level to improve the functioning of the TVET sector.
Recently, CIDA has come forward to contribute around
US$ 20 million grants to the project.

STEP aims to increase the skill levels of the
workforce to ensure competitiveness in both the
labor and product markets. Enhancing the range and
quality of vocational training will help the country to
more effectively utilize the overseas employment
opportunities and increase Bangladesh’s remittance
earning. Through effective vocational training, the
project hopes to increase the average wage that a
migrant can demand in the international labor market
as well as reduce the risk of unemployment in times
of financial crisis. At home, with the increase in
skills, the export industry will be able to diversify the
product base it offers to consumers. STEP is designed
to address the key issues concerning the Technical
and Vocational Education Training (TVET) sector in a
number of ways. Firstly, by incorporating views from
industries and civil society it seeks to ensure that the
programs being offered are relevant to the needs of
the labor market. Secondly, it would ensure that the
teacher-trainer vacancies that have remained open
for a period of six months or more are filled. Thirdly,
the project breaks new ground by supporting both
public and private institutions and thereby creating
a level playing field. Institutions that perform well
in terms of pass rates, number of teachers trained,
and placement rates of students within a period of six
months after completion of the program, will receive
a performance grant of US$ 200,000 on top of their
initial implementation grant of up to US$ 1 million.
Finally, the project provides stipends to students
from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.
Students receiving a stipend must maintain 75 percent
annual attendance and 45 percent pass marks in the
annual examinations. STEP also aims to pilot new
TVET schemes, especially at the SSC level, in an
attempt to link schools with community and other
training providers. Furthermore, it plans to pilot an
apprenticeship program, orient students to vocational
education and training in their early years and revise
the curriculum with a focus on technical skills.

Enhancing the quality and relevance
of higher education is currently
one of the issues at the top of the
government’s agenda. The Higher
Education Quality Enhancement
Project (HEQEP) aims to bring forth
both innovation and accountability
within universities and lay the
foundation for better learning and
research in the tertiary education
sector.

Tertiary education faces many deep-rooted and intertwined
challenges. Bangladesh apportioned about 2.1 percent of its GDP to
education, but just 0.12 percent was allocated to tertiary education
– a very low share by any standards. Low levels of funding leaves
little money for investing in research, labs, equipment, computers,
books or electronic journals, and infrastructure maintenance
for improvement of teaching, learning and research. An effective
mechanism to link universities’ research and industry and business,
whether at home or abroad, is still absent. Weak connectivity and
inadequate ICT penetration in the higher education institutions
limit knowledge exchanges and research collaborations amongst
academic communities at home and with international peers.
Finally, there was a lack of an appropriate funding mechanism to
encourage basic and applied research in the universities.

12

Approach

Results in Numbers

HEQEP promotes academic innovation in both public
and private universities through a competitive funding
mechanism, known as the Academic Innovation Fund
(AIF). The AIF aims to establish enabling conditions
to enhance the quality and relevance of teaching,
learning and research in universities; and introduce
efficient instrument for the allocation of additional
public funds to universities with an emphasis on
innovation and accountability. It has clear selection
criteria and allocates resources through three
competitive windows: improvement of teaching and
learning, enhancement of research capabilities, and
university-wide innovations. The AIF also promotes
self-assessment of 25 academic programs in 15
universities as a first step towards the establishment
of quality assurance mechanism for the tertiary
education sub-sector. So far, 194 grants have been
awarded to 27 public universities and two private
universities. 96 grants were given to revamp teaching
and learning and help universities carry out selfassessments, 73 to enhance research capabilities
and 25 grants for establishment of institutional and
library automation, campus network, improvement
of laboratory facilities, and refurbishment of training
institute. The project has established the Bangladesh
Research and Education Network (BdREN) to provide
universities high speed dedicated connectivity. This
enables teachers, researchers and students to access
the latest knowledge and to engage in collaborative
research across institutions of higher learning within
the country and abroad. BdREN is also connected to
global networks in Eurasia (TEIN 3), USA (Internet 2),
Ireland (HeaNet), Continental Europe (GEANT 2), and
Asia-Pacific region (APAN). A fully operational digital
library facility, the UGC Digital Library (UDL), has also
been established with 34 public and private universities.
The UDL subscribes to electronic-resources from
acclaimed international electronic journals such as
ACM, Emerald and JSTOR. The project also aims to
enhance transparency and accountability in the use
of public resources and to build the management and
institutional capacity of the higher education sector.

194 academic innovation grants awarded to
27 public and two private universities.

4

public universities and UGC connected through
BdREN.

15% of students and faculty members with
advanced internet connectivity.

The government has requested for additional funding
to scale up the project activities to establish a quality
assurance mechanism in Bangladesh universities.
AIF has given impetus to revamp and institutionalize
government’s own competitive funding mechanism.

The World Bank in Bangladesh

13

HEALTH SECTOR DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Building a healthy nation

Basic Information
Start date: 26 May 2011
Total commitment: US$ 358.9
million
Implementing agency: Ministry
of Health and Family Welfare

Bangladesh has made remarkable
progress in improving health outcomes.
However, despite the progress of recent
years, many in Bangladesh continue to
struggle to access quality health services
– negatively impacting on individuals,
households; and costing the economy
millions of dollars in days lost due to poor
health. The Health Sector Development
Program (HSDP) aims to support the
commitment of the Government of
Bangladesh to ensure equitable access to
quality health services and to strengthen
health systems with the ultimate goal
to achieve better health outcomes,
particularly for women, children, the poor
and the marginalized.

Bangladesh has been awarded the United Nations Millennium
Development Goal Award 2010. Since 1990, infant and child
mortality rates have declined by more than two-thirds and the
country is also on track to reach MDG 5 to improve maternal
health and MDG 4 to reduce the under-five mortality rate by
two thirds. Still, significant development challenges remain
in the health sector, including the double burden of noncommunicable and communicable diseases. The percentage
as well as the absolute number of malnourished women and
children in Bangladesh remains among the highest in the
world. Added to this is the increasing and changing demand
for health services, influenced by aspects such as population
dynamics; urbanization and climate change. Public spending
on health is low in comparison to other countries and many
patients are paying out of their own pockets to access
medical services - catastrophic health expenditure pushes
people further into poverty.

14

Approach

Results in Numbers

HSDP aims to provide essential health services that
improve reproductive health, from family planning
and antenatal care to scaling up emergency
obstetric and newborn care services and ensuring
24/7 services in selected district hospitals and
upazila health centres. This is a follow-on to the long
standing World Bank support for the Government’s
sector wide programs in the health sector. Based
on the successes and lessons learned from past
programs and in recognition of the challenges
ahead, the Government has initiated implementation
of a US$ 8 billion sector wide program, the Health,
Population and Nutrition Sector Development
Program, from 2011 to 2016. The HSDP of the World
Bank is fully aligned with this program, playing an
important role in operationalizing commitments to
improve essential health services and strengthen the
systems. The program aligns multiple development
partners to the country’s priorities in health, nutrition
and population, and uses country systems for
implementation and monitoring. The program also
strengthens health sector planning and resource
management, human resources development,
management of pharmaceuticals, health information
systems and maintenance of health care facilities.
Further, the program will focus its support on the
low performing geographic areas such as Sylhet
and Chittagong. HSDP further seeks to improve the
control and treatment of both communicable and
non-communicable diseases through vaccinations
as well as by scaling up HIV/AIDS interventions
for the most-at-risk groups, improving the quality
of treatment for tuberculosis and strengthening
malaria control and treatment in 13 highly endemic
areas. For non-communicable diseases, HSDP aims
to improve awareness of cardio-vascular disease
risks, provide better diagnosis and management
of diabetes and improve screening for cancer. All
these services are supported by an improvement in
management and budgeting, better regulatory and
supervisory roles as well as decentralized locallevel planning.

40% reduction in maternal mortality, down to 194
deaths per 100,000 live births in 2010.

31.7% births attended by medically trained
professionals in 2011, up from 18% in 2007.

95.5% coverage of Vitamin A supplementation
among children under five years in 2011, up from
88.3% in 2007.

86% of children under 23 months receiving basic
vaccination in 2011, up from 81.9% in 2007.

2.3

children per woman in 2011 after a decadelong plateau during the 1990s around 3.3 children per
woman.

61.2% contraceptive prevalence rate in 2011, up
from 55.8% in 2007.

12,258 Community Clinics functional in 2012.
87.5% coverage of measles immunization for
children under 12 months in 2011, up from 82%
in 2009.

63.5% of children exclusively breastfed up to 6
months of age in 2011, up from 43% in 2007.

Towards the Future
External funding for the HSDP includes the Multi Donor
and Single Donor Trust Fund of US$ 341 million and
the World Bank’s IDA credit of US$ 359 million. Seven
development partners have pooled their finances
in the Multi-Donor Trust Fund: AusAID; CIDA; KfW;
Sida; DFID; USAID and UNFPA. The Embassy of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) has also pledged to
pool their financing in the near future.

Connection to schools, markets and health
facilities help a nation prosper and improve
the quality of people’s lives. In Bangladesh,
extreme seasonal weather such as floods,
cyclones and droughts as well as frequent
use by heavy goods vehicles mean that
roads need to be repaired on a regular
basis. The Second Bangladesh Rural
Transport Improvement Project (RTIP II)
provides rural communities with improved
access to social services and economic
opportunity and builds the capacity of
government institutions to better manage
rural transport infrastructure.

Despite the wide network and large investments on the
country’s road network, the condition of rural roads needs
regular repair and rehabilitation. The quality, construction,
and carrying capacity of part of the secondary and tertiary
road network are poor. In 2000, only 37 percent of the
population lived within 2 km of an all-season road. About 13,
000 km of Upazila Roads, out of 36,500 km were all-weather
standard and most of the rural Union Roads remained
unpaved. Hence large portions of the secondary and tertiary
road network remained impassable during the rainy season.
Inland waterways are an important mode of transportation
for the poor as it is cheaper than road or rail transport, more
energy efficient and environmentally friendly. Furthermore,
it provides access to very remote areas and offshore islands
where there is neither road not railway communication.
About 12 percent of the rural population in Bangladesh has
water transport as its only mode of transport.

18

Approach
RTIP II builds on the success of the preceding project
which covered over 44,000 square km of 21 districts,
developing both rural trade and transport infrastructure
by focusing on the physical improvements of inter-linked
roads, small bridges and culverts, growth centre markets
and river jetties. The project maintained and improved
more than 3000 km of rural roads, 120 growth centres
and 30 jetties. 50,000 person years of employment
were created in project areas, out of which 30% were
poor women. These new and improved roads, many of
which are built by destitute women, make it easier for
children to go to school, for expectant mothers to reach
hospitals in an emergency and for both local farmers and
consumers to reach markets. An evaluation study has
shown that the average travel times and transportation
costs have already reduced by more than 50 per cent,
for both motorised and non-motorised vehicles. Better
rural roads have led to a 65% reduction in travel time
during the monsoon season and 58% reduction during
the dry season for motorised vehicles. RTIP II has
expanded coverage to improve road connectivity in the
country side. The project aims to maintain and improve
around 5,250 km of union parishad and upazilla roads in
26 districts for better rural connectivity. The project will
also pilot the restoration of rural waterways to provide
year round connectivity to the poor and isolated rural
communities who have no road access but have access

to waterways, which are open for service only part of
the year. The project also includes rehabilitation and
development of market centers at strategic locations
that will be essential to the economic activity of the rural
population in Bangladesh. These market centers will be
accessible through the rural roads and rural waterways
and will have dedicated allocation of shops for women
traders to promote women participation.

Expected Results by 2018

5,250 km of rural roads in 26 districts
maintained.

22

million people living near roads and
waterways benefitted.

Towards the Future
RTIP II is also developing a comprehensive rural
road transport safety framework to help reduce
the alarming number of injuries and fatalities that
occur on Bangladesh’s roads. The project also plans
on implementing sustainable enhancements to
the Local Government Engineering Department’s
capacities in planning, monitoring, finance, asset
management, administration and governance.

Life comes to near standstill
after sunset for the great
majority of Bangladeshis living
in the countryside. Only about
40 percent of rural households
have access to grid electricity,
and even these consumers
suffer frequent and prolonged
power cuts due to lack of
supply. The Second Rural
Electrification and Renewable
Energy Development Project
(RERED II) aims to increase
access to electricity in off-grid
rural areas through renewable
energy sources.

At present, against a peak demand of about 8,000 megawatt (MW),
current supply is only about 6,000 MW. The urban areas with large
industrial loads are prioritized for power supply leaving the rural areas
with a disproportionate share of the power cuts. Further, the dispersed
nature of rural settlements and the numerous rivers that crisscross
the country make grid electrification in many areas of Bangladesh
both difficult and expensive. Though progress is being made by the
government to counter the power generation shortages, it is clear
that reliance on grid electricity alone will not allow the Bangladesh
government to realize its vision of universal access to electricity by 2021.

RERED II is building on the success of the earlier
project, which has supported more than 650,000 new
connections to the power grid in Bangladesh and
installed more than 2 million solar home systems in
remote rural areas. Since RERED’s inception in 2009, the
project contributed to increasing access to electricity in
Bangladesh by 3.5 percent. A recent impact evaluation
study on SHS have confirmed increased study time for
children, increased mobility and sense of security for
women, and increased use of contraceptives and fall in
recent fertility in SHS households, thanks to awareness
from watching TV. The RERED II project continues to
support the installation of solar power systems and
other renewable energy options in remote rural areas
where grid electricity is not economically viable. More
than 80,000 solar homes systems are being installed
every month, making it the fastest growing solar home
systems program in the world. The implementing
agency is a Government owned financing institution,
IDCOL. A total of 30 Non-Government Organizations
(NGOs) called Partner Organizations (POs) are
installing SHS through a micro-credit scheme. Under
the program, POs procure and install the systems in
rural households as per technical standards set by
IDCOL. Households pay 15% down payment while 85%
is repaid by households for a 3-5 year credit period at
market interest rates (12-15%). After the systems are
installed, the POs apply for re-financing from IDCOL
(at 6-8% interest rate for a repayment period of 8-10
years) for part of the micro-credit extended to the
households. After technical and other verifications,
IDCOL releases the credit and a fixed subsidy (currently
$28 per system) to the POs. This refinancing provides
the POs with funds to install more systems.

550,000 solar home systems to provide
electricity in remote villages.

80,000 solar home systems

More than
installed every month.

1 millon rural households with clean cooking

solutions.

Towards the Future
The RERED II project is piloting renewable energy based
mini-grids in remote rural areas and is also supporting
solar irrigation pumps. The project also aims to
provide clean cooking solutions to over 1 million rural
households, which will benefit women and children in
particular and support distribution of energy efficient
Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) in exchange for
incandescent lamps to help address the severe energy
shortages in Bangladesh.

Now I can keep my small restaurant open
even during the evenings and till late at
night. My business is booming and my
family lives much more comfortably with
our increased income. My children are
also doing much better at school —
Farida.

Seventy-two percent of the
Bangladeshi population lives in
rural areas and does not have
uniform access to safe water.
Shallow aquifers are often highly
contaminated by arsenic and
other pollutants such as salinity,
iron, and bacterial pathogens. The
Bangladesh Rural Water Supply
and Sanitation Project (BRWSSP)
aims to provide hygienic sanitation
and safe water for around 1.6
million people living in rural
areas with high arsenic or saline
infiltration.

National rural water supply in Bangladesh is estimated to be
around 97 percent coverage, however, water quality issues and
contamination by arsenic has significantly lowered this figure to
around 83 percent. Around 82 million people live in arsenic affected
areas throughout the country. As such, arsenic is the single largest
threat to safe water service provision. The quality of sanitation
coverage is another area of concern. While there has been
significant movement in Bangladesh away from ‘open defecation’
towards ‘fixed point defecation,’ a study by the Water and Sanitation
Program revealed that only 37 percent of the latrines are hygienic.
Whilst the government has confirmed the risks from arsenic and
recognised the need to take action, in practice the institutional
arrangements for water supply and sanitation services at the
national level are not sufficiently coordinated to face the challenges
of the sector. Hygiene promotion is similarly inadequate. The poor
infrastructure and facilities for water and sanitation services along
with increased demand is making it difficult to provide reliable
water and sanitation services.

22

Expected Results by 2017

1,650,000 people with access to improved
water sources.

20,000

community water points constructed
or rehabilitated.

70,000 new piped household water

connections.

1,700,000 people with access to hygienic
latrines.

Towards the Future
A study is underway using AusAID Trust Fund to check
the viability of PPP type service contracts in small
Pourashavas (municipalities) where no piped water
supply currently exists and where there is a demand
for safe water supply.

Built on the success of a previous World Bank pilot
project, BRWSSP aims to scale up piped and nonpiped water facilities to provide safe and clean water
to villagers in around 380 unions in 33 districts with
acute arsenic contamination and low coverage of
safe water supply. The project also aims to provide
hygienic sanitation facilities, thus bringing forth a
comprehensive improvement of water and sanitation
in all the project target areas. The project will scale
up the successful initiative of the earlier project
where private sponsors work together with the
community and the local government in a publicprivate partnership to develop and operate schemes
for 12 – 15 years. The sponsors will put equity
contribution in infrastructure development under
the PPP arrangement, which is a pioneer in rural
water and sanitation sector in South Asia. Deep
tube-wells connected to piped water supply systems
are a safe and viable option, especially in high density
villages. The project is also financing investment
for construction of about 14,000 water point
sources mainly deep tubewells in hot-spot upazilas
where piped water supply is not geographically
or economically possible. Local villagers and
Union Parishad officials will be at the center of
decision-making, starting from site selection to
implementation and maintenance of the schemes.
Union Parishads will own the infrastructure
assets. The piped and non-piped water schemes,
as well as hygienic sanitation facilities, will be
implemented through local partnerships involving
beneficiary communities, local governments, nongovernmental and community-based organizations
and private entrepreneurs. Furthermore, in selected
disaster affected areas, the project is supporting
the Government’s emergency disaster response
mechanism through provision of the expansion of
water supply services. Meanwhile, to fight the poor
condition of sanitation, BRWSSP aims to provides
financial incentives for the poor to construct hygienic
latrines, strengthen the markets to be able to react
to the rise in demand through capacity building in
the local private sector as well as increase the role
of the government to ensure that the latrines are

maintained and accessible to all. An awareness
raising campaign will further support the program in
bringing a better standard of sanitation throughout
the country.

Approach

The World Bank in Bangladesh

23

WATER MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT PROJECT

Safe, sweet water

Basic Information
Start date: 18 September 2007
Total commitment: US$ 102.26
million
Implementing agency:
Bangladesh Water Development
Board and WARPO

Water touches almost every aspect
of daily life, yet ironically in a nation
all too familiar with monsoon rains,
safe and sweet water doesn’t reach
everyone. The Water Management
Improvement Project (WMIP) seeks
to rehabilitate damaged water
infrastructure by involving the local
communities in water resource
management and bolstering the
ability of the country’s principal
water institutions, particularly
Bangladesh Water Development
Board (BWDB) and Water
Resources Planning Organization
(WARPO).

Bangladesh is the terminal floodplain delta of three large rivers,
the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna, with over 90
percent of their catchments’ areas situated outside the country.
Each year during the monsoon season, about 20 to 30 percent of
the country is inundated, flooding over 6 million hectares to depths
ranging from 30cm to 2m. However, whilst creating opportunities
for highly productive farming and fishing systems, these are
balanced by the risks of deep flooding, erosion and drainage.
By contrast, in the post-monsoon period, soil-moisture content
declines rapidly and the water deficit needs to be compensated by
irrigation. Agriculture gets the largest share of available water and
this in turn affects navigation, drinking water supply, environment,
rural health and sanitation. Salinity intrusion, water logging and
the contamination of the groundwater aquifer by arsenic further
exacerbate this problem. Much work has been done in recent
decades to prepare for disasters, but water management remains
a critical issue.

24

Approach

Results in Numbers

WMIP supports the government’s goal to decentralize
the authority of Bangladesh Water Development Board
(BWDB) and hand over the management responsibilities
to community organizations, where feasible. By taking
the emphasis off flood control and focusing more on
water management, the project shifts the responsibility
from technicians and bureaucrats to a wide variety of
community stakeholders who may participate at any
stage of the project development cycle. WMIP covers a
total of 130 existing schemes in an area of about 800,000
ha with an approximate population of 9.5 million. It
is estimated that about 500,000 poorer households
will benefit, mainly through increased employment
opportunities and higher production of crops and fish.
Furthermore, the project also aims to rehabilitate the
BWDB schemes damaged by the 2007 floods and later
on by 2009 cyclone. Following these natural disasters,
about US$ 44.5 million of the project fund has been
allocated for rehabilitation activities. WMIP also aims to
reform the Government institutions involved in the water
sector, improving the governance and transparency
thereby enhancing their performance to better manage
water systems. With this joint approach, the project
not only promotes rational management, optimal use
and access to water for production, health and hygiene,
but also ensures availability of clean water in sufficient
quantities for multipurpose use and preservation of the
aquatic and water dependent ecosystems.

Towards the Future
The project plans to introduce new hydromet
technologies to help BWDB better monitor the
water flows in the system and also upgrade the ICT
infrastructure. BWDB needs strategic involvement
and technical capacity building for sustainable
water management. The participatory scheme cycle
management (PSM) approach of the project involving
the beneficiary communities from identification up to
monitoring and evaluation facilitates the Government’s
policy of participatory water management mandatory
for all public sector institutions. The communities
are involved through 797 new and reconstituted
water management organizations (WMO) in all the 67
schemes under the project.

We could not believe that BWDB will
consider our opinion in selection of
interventions for scheme rehabilitation.
Looking at the civil work underway,
we regret that we were foolish not to
duly participate in the identification
and planning stages — A member of Water

Twice a year during the lean
periods, fewer labourers
are needed to cope with the
grain production. In these
times, thousands of people
throughout Bangladesh find
it difficult to survive on the
little work available and suffer
from seasonal hunger. The
Employment Generation
Program for the Poorest
(EGPP) has provided a secure
and regular source of income
to over 600,000 of the least well
off in Bangladesh during the
country’s lean seasons.

The seasonal job drought hits the poorest the hardest as they struggle
to put food on the table and cater for basic needs of their families. Men
are forced to leave for the city in search of employment, leaving women
and children in the villages. Reaching these people, the ‘most vulnerable’
in society, has always been the greatest challenge for the Government
of Bangladesh. The lack of effective targeting of government resources,
transparency and accountability within the food distribution system as
well as reliable monitoring to ensure results are being achieved are
key challenges that prevent resources from reaching these vulnerable
populations. The sheer scale of poverty in Bangladesh and the limited
fiscal space in government budgets given the on-going global financial
crisis mean that both recipient governments and donors alike are looking
for smart programs that allow for a maximum social return on investment.
By focusing on providing short term employment on community subprojects to enable households to better cope with vulnerability while
strengthening government implementation capacity, the EGPP is an
example of such a smart program.

28

Approach
EGPP targets the most vulnerable in society in a
number of ways. Firstly, a greater proportion of funds
are channelled to the poorest upazillas, especially
along the coastal regions. Secondly, only households
with less than ½ an acre of land and where the head
is a manual labourer are eligible. Thirdly, wages are
set at below market wage level to attract only those
who need the money the most. Furthermore, one third
of all beneficiaries must be women. EGPP is a new
generation of safety net programs that sets aside part of
the budget for improving transparency and monitoring.
For the first time in the history of Bangladesh, wages
to manual labourers are being paid through banks
minimising the chance of leakage. Furthermore,
improved public disclosure as well as a new grievance
redress system contributes towards better governance.
Finally, funds are released when agreed targets are
met. This results-based approach creates incentives
for efficiency and allows for innovation making EGPP
the dynamic program it is today. Since the World Bank’s
support to the program in 2010, EGPP has provided over
105 million employment days and distributed a total of
US$ 207 million of wage income. With only four years
in operation, the EGPP has become one of the largest
safety net programs in Bangladesh.

With the money I earn from building
roads, at least I have enough to put food
on the table — Halima, day laborer in Kapasia.

Recognizing its positive results, the Government of
Bangladesh increased the allocation for EGPP by 20%
from US$ 125 to US$ 150, the highest increase for any
program in the current FY. The program is expecting
to reach a further 630,000 thousand people in the
coming fiscal year and to deliver a further 24 million
employment days. With the constant threat of natural
disasters and global warming creating longer and
harder lean periods, the support provided by EGPP is
needed more than ever before so that a crop failure or
a poor harvest does not turn into a famine.

Existing studies suggest that some
of Bangladesh’s safety net programs
have shown to be effective at reducing
poverty and improving gender
outcomes. The Bangladesh Safety Net
System for the Poorest Project (SNSP)
aims to improve the equity, efficiency
and transparency of major social safety
net programs to benefit the poorest
households.

Despite Bangladesh’s remarkable progress of lifting 16 million
people out of poverty in the past decade, poverty remains a
stubborn problem, with about 47 million people living in poverty
and 26 million in extreme poverty. To support the poor and
vulnerable, the Government of Bangladesh implements a number
of public social safety net programs that involve spending more
than 2% of GDP yearly. Despite these interventions, 70% of poor
people still do not receive any safety net support, mainly due
to shortcomings in identifying poor beneficiaries and program
administration.

30

Expected Results by 2017

18 million poor people to benefit from more
effective safety net programs.

5 large GoB safety net programs supported.
Towards the Future
The project became effective on September 2013.

SNSP aims to benefit four million households,
comprising of 18 million poor people, by co-financing
a portion of expenditures of major safety net programs
while strengthening their effectiveness. SNSP offers
a results-based financing modality, where 86% of
the funds reimburse Government expenditures
made under safety net programs against specific
performance indicators. These include allocating
increased resources to the poorest, particularly poor
women, and introducing an objective targeting system
better to identify the poor. Further, the project will focus
on expanding the provision of cash-based transfers
through the banking system. SNSP will introduce
modern program management information systems
and grievance redress mechanisms; it will ensure
stronger monitoring along with increased beneficiary
access to information on rules and entitlements; and
it will provide technical assistance for developing and
administrating a transparent system of identifying
the poor that would reduce the overall costs and
errors associated with beneficiary identification. The
five safety net programs the project will support are
implemented by the Ministry of Disaster Management

and Relief, and include the Employment Generation
Program for the Poorest (EGPP), Food for Works
(FFW), Test Relief (TR), Gratuitous Relief (GR) and
Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) programs. The
project will also support the Statistics and Informatics
Division in developing a database of poor households
that would facilitate better targeting for safety net
service delivery and would contribute to improve the
coordination among various safety nets implemented
by different ministries.

Bangladesh has made significant progress
over the last decade in reducing poverty;
however, the government recognises that
particular marginalized groups, have few
targeted programs and services to meet their
needs. In particular, people with disabilities
and children-at-risk suffer from a lack of
access to adequate educational services,
health and rehabilitation services and safety
nets. This lack of access has led to exclusion
from social and economic activities. The
Bangladesh Disability and Children at Risk
(DCAR) project aims to expand coverage
and improve quality of services for these for
people with disabilities and children at risk
by strengthening and scaling up government
service delivery systems.

Disability has far reaching consequences in the social
and economic development of a country. People with
disabilities are often marginalized, forgo schooling and
cannot enter the labour market. The lack of social services
to support them often leads to family members having to
forgo paid employment to stay at home to provide care,
pushing the family into deeper poverty. The cost of disability
in Bangladesh is estimated to be US$ 1.2 billion, or 1.74
percent of GDP per annum (2008 estimates). For vulnerable
children, the cost of reversing their lack of human
development opportunities in later years is far greater
than the cost of investing in their human development
during childhood. To increase social cohesion and reduce
poverty in Bangladesh, the quality of social care services
and economic opportunities for people with disabilities as
well as vulnerable children needs to be improved. This is
particularly challenging in a weak capacity environment
where implementing entities often lack the requisite
technical skills and management tools.

32

Approach

Towards the Future

DCAR is supporting the Jatiyo Protibondhi Unnayan
Foundation (JPUF) in adding new Disability Service
Centers (DSCs) to an existing Government program,
upgrading technical facilities, providing assistive devices
to the disabled, enhancing outreach to remote areas of
the country, and institutionalizing specialist training for
service providers. The project also aims to improve and
expand the network of services for children at risk and
strengthen the institutional capacity of the Department
of Social Services (DSS). Integrated Child Protection
Service (ICPS) Centers have been established in seven
divisional cities, including crisis management services,
referral services, psychosocial counselling, skills
training and development, reintegration services, case
management, and health and education. The project
also seeks to strengthen the Ministry of Social Welfare
(MoSW), by supporting the development and roll-out of
a management information system for key programs
of the MoSW, including the DSCs, child protection
services, and several large social pension programs.

Given the delayed start in implementation and
subsequent cost savings, the project will be restructured
in the first quarter of FY 2014 to provide for a greater
emphasis on outreach services.

Results in Numbers

37,000 persons- with-disabilities receiving
services.

1,400 children-at-risk receiving services.
20 Disability Service Centers (DSCs) established in
various district headquarters.

Implementing agency: Ministry of
Agriculture and Ministry of Livestock
and Fisheries

Overview

Challenge

Agriculture and the rural non-farm
economy, which together contribute 56
percent of the gross domestic product, are
the main sources of livelihood for rural
people. Raising agricultural productivity
and improving the economy of the rural
non-farm sectors is crucial to ensure
food security, generate employment and
reduce poverty in rural Bangladesh. The
National Agricultural Technology Project
(NATP) aims to improve effectiveness
of the technology used in agriculture to
increase productivity and farm income, with
a particular focus on small and marginal
farms.

Agriculture in Bangladesh is characterized by small,
rice-dominated farms, which have greatly contributed
to increasing food self-sufficiency over the last 30
years. However, this self-sufficiency is continuously
threatened by an increasing population and stagnating
yields. At the heart of the problem is the “yield gap,”
the difference between the amounts produced and the
potential for production, which remains large as farmers
fail to maximise the use of land. Weak technology
carries much of the blame. Farmers lack the machinery
and information systems to store their products postharvest or to process them into high value commodities
such as fruit juice and jam. Lack of crop diversification,
deteriorating and declining cultivable land as well as
poor linkages to markets also play a crucial part. As a
result, a lot of sale potential is lost.

NATP is a home-grown initiative designed to tackle
the modern challenges of agriculture and help
farmers in Bangladesh bridge the yield gap. Firstly,
the project has established an autonomous Krishi
Gobeshana (Agriculture Research) Foundation (KGF)
that has objectively and transparently financed
applied agricultural research projects, which have
achieved a number of significant outcomes such as
the development of genotypes of spices, rice and
tomato that were released by the National Seed Board.
Secondly, farmers have been mobilized into Common
Interest Groups that can access relevant research and
technologies to improve the agricultural productivity.
Farmers have adopted new technologies and the
project has also demonstrated 19 new supply chain
technologies to improve linkages to markets, which
have been adopted by over 5,000 farmers. Thirdly,
Commodity Collection and Marketing Centres, set up
by the project to act as commercial forums for farmers
and local stakeholders and help in negotiating better
prices for their products. Since inception, 10,358 tons
of fresh produce from small and marginal farmers
has been sold through these centres, adding a net
benefit of Taka 43 million as compared to sales from
traditional markets. Finally, to facilitate production of
the variety and the quality of commodities demanded
by the market, the project helps producers organize
themselves into groups and diversify production by
self-selecting market options and products they wish
to invest in. This helps to integrate small and marginal
producers into value chains covering key commodities
of interest to the poor, including rice, maize, fruits,
vegetables, livestock and fisheries.

Results in Numbers

2,065,877

farmers adopting new
agricultural technologies.

201 applied research projects funded.
727 Farmers Information and Advisory Center
(FIAC) established and well functioning.

Towards the Future
The project is planned to be closed in December 2013,
though the project may request for six months extension
until June 2014. Meanwhile, the United State Agency for
International Development (USAID) has provided a total
grant of US$ 25 million to support Government’s strategy
to improve the national agricultural technology system.
This collaboration is expected to significantly improve the
effectiveness of the project.

Implementing agency: Ministry of Agriculture
and Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock

Overview

Challenge

Bangladesh has come a long way since
the early 1970s, when attaining food
security was a distant dream. Now,
the country is almost able to feed its
own population. Pockets of extreme
poverty still persist though, especially
in areas with unfavourable agricultural
environments. The Bangladesh
Integrated Agricultural Productivity
Project (IAPP) aims to enhance the
productivity of agriculture, including
livestock and fisheries, in pilot areas,
which are particularly prone to adverse
seasonal weather conditions such as
droughts and flash floods.

Agriculture provides livelihoods for over 60 percent of the
population of Bangladesh. However, people living in the
flash flood and drought prone districts in the northwest
and the saline affected tidal surge areas in the south
struggle year after year to produce enough food to eat
or earn a living. Development indicators show that these
regions suffer from higher poverty than the national
average. The latest Household Income and Expenditure
Survey (HIES, 2008) indicates that poverty rate in the
northwest is 57 percent and in the south is 52 percent
against the national average of 40 percent. The link
between unfavourable agricultural environments, where
farmers lack knowledge and technology, and chronic
poverty coupled with food insecurity is abundantly clear
in these areas.

38

Results in Numbers

IAPP aims to use technology and training to enhance
agricultural production in the flash-flood and droughtprone northern districts of Rangpur, Kurigram,
Nilfamari, and Lalmonirhat and saline-affected
tidal surge areas in the southern districts of Barisal,
Patuakhali, Barguna and Jhalokhati. IAPP would
benefit about 175,000 crop farmers, 60,000 livestock
farmers and 60,000 fish farmers in the selected eight
pilot districts. The project focuses on alleviating poverty
and increasing food security through intensification of
major crops such as cereals, diversification of highvalue non-cereal crops such as fruit and vegetables,
and development of non-crop agriculture such as
fishery, poultry and livestock. Knowledge plays a
critical role. Livelihood field schools improve farmers’
understanding and skills base as well as demonstrate
the use of new technologies for those wishing to
adapt current technology or adopt new technology
to intensify and diversify agricultural yield. IAPP also
aims to release new and improved crop varieties as
well as more productive fish species. In other areas
the projects will refine crop production management
practices and perform adaptive trials of aquaculture
technology. Community mobilization and extension will
comprise of activities relating to supporting farmers’
groups in adopting new improved technologies and
practices, and enabling them to further spread them
through farmer-to-farmer interactions. Finally, by
conserving and utilising surface water and improving
availability of irrigation water and efficiency of its use,
farmers will be able to increase cropping intensity.

236,000 farmers with increased productivity.
157 tons of certified seeds of different crops

Livelihood Field Schools formed by
the Department of Agriculture Extension, providing
training to farmers.
More than
crops.

2,500 demonstrations on various
2,025

More than
fish farmers received training
on three different technologies and 100 fisheries
officers received technical skills development training.

1,600 fishery demonstrations, of which 378 are
fish nursery.

24,000 farmers have already adopted various

improved agricultural technologies including fisheries
and livestock.

2 new varieties (both wheat) have already been

introduced and 7 more are in process of development
for release.

Towards the Future
The project aims to reach nearly 300,000 beneficiaries,
improve 25,000 hectares of irrigated land, and introduce
over 20 improved production packages. The Global
Agriculture Food Security Program (GAFSP) intends
to accept proposals for new financing from January 1,
2014. As part of this, the Government of Bangladesh
would be eligible to submit a proposal for Additional
Financing for the IAPP.

In the backdrop of 8 percent growth target
required to attain middle income country status
by 2021, Bangladesh needs to double its current
investment in infrastructure as early as it can.
Given the resource constraints in public sector,
Private- Public Partnership (PPP) is being used as
a complementing tool in reducing the investment
gap for infrastructure. The Investment Promotion
and Financing Facility (IPFF) Project is helping to
build the capacity of the local financial institutions
for longer term financing to private-public
partnership ventures in infrastructure.

Due to the on-going preference for shorter term
financing and with limited capacity, the local financial
institutions are not yet keen to finance infrastructure
projects for a longer term like 10 – 15 years. As a
consequence, infrastructure development programs,
which are long-term in nature, are suffering. At
present the financial markets are unable to contribute
substantially to infrastructure financing, except for
smaller projects without external (or government)
support. A new lending facility is needed to bridge
this gap.

42

Approach

Results in Numbers

IPFF aims to increase private sector investment in a range
of infrastructure sectors through PPP following Financial
Intermediary Lending (FIL) model. The financial institutions,
selected based on some qualification criteria, can apply for IPFF
fund through Bangladesh Bank for financing infrastructure
sub-projects. The project also provides technical assistance
for identifying PPP projects starting from the feasibility stage,
transactions advisory, and tendering. IPFF has already delivered
eight fully operational small power plants and added 228 MW
to the national grid providing cheap and reliable electricity. In
addition to facilitating investment in power sector, IPFF is also
working to bring in private provision in other critical infrastructure
areas as ports, container terminals, water treatment plants,
waste disposal projects, and others. With support from IPFF,
the PPP Office, in collaboration with Board of Investment
and Bangladesh Bank organized a number of international
conferences to attract foreign investors. The project also
provided technical assistance to launch three feasibility studies
in Health and Port sector. In order to accelerate the pace of
project implementation, the World Bank and the Government of
Bangladesh recently restructured the project. The restructured
project broadens the scope to finance ventures from health,
education and information communication technology (ICT)
sectors and reallocated more resources for supporting PPP
Office in preparing the sub-projects.

8 fully operational power plants.
228 MW added to national grid through

public-private partnership and to the Dhaka
and Chittagong export processing zones.

1

central water treatment plant financed,
first of this kind in Bangladesh.

Following restructuring the project team has
focused on strengthening the pipeline both for
the short and medium term. At present the
project is working on two power plants (each
55 MW), two waste treatment plants, one inland
container terminal, and two water treatment
plant. IPFF is also working with Ministry of
Shipping and the PPP Office for tendering of
construction of two jetties in Mongla Port, the
country’s 2nd sea-port.

Overview
Around fifty five percent of the households
have electricity connection in Bangladesh. The
Siddhirganj Peaking Power Project (SPPP)
aims to build infrastructures and create good
institutions to provide 335 MW of electricity to
the national grid and supply natural gas to the
Siddhirganj region.

peak demand. During the peak times, load shedding is
a regular occurrence causing disruptions to economic
activities forcing many industries to go for costly back-up
generators. Unreliable power supply costs the country
about 2% of GDP. The energy sector is financially weak,
access to capital is severely constrained and prices do
not cover costs. Increasing shortages of natural gas,
the primary fuel used in power generation, have added
to the sector’s woes.

Energy demand in Bangladesh has increased on
an average of eight percent per annum with peak
demand reaching more than 8,000 MW. However,
electricity generation per head remains amongst
the lowest in the world and at present generation
capability is 6,000 MW, falling considerably short of

Approach
The project was originally designed as a 300 MW peaking
power plant (gas-fired) to meet the shortages during
peak periods. Given the increasing energy demand and
continued supply shortages, the Government decided
to upgrade the peaking units to a combined cycle
technology to produce higher amount of electricity with
lower gas consumption. This will meet base load as
well as peak demands. Combined cycle technologies
also contribute to less carbon emission and higher
thermal efficiency. An additional financing (US$160
million) is required to meet the additional capital cost
of the combined cycle technology. EGCB is responsible

for implementing the power plant component of
the project and has awarded the contract to supply
and install a 335 MW combined cycle power plant at
Siddhirganj. PGCB is implementing an 11 km 230 kV
transmission line to evacuate the power generated by
the power plant. GTCL is implementing a 60 km 30inch gas pipeline to improve the reliability of gas supply
to the power plant area. In addition to supporting
the physical infrastructures, the project is providing
institutional development supports to the three
implementing agencies, including the provision of an
Owners’ Engineer for EGCB and GTCL, an Operation &
Maintenance contractor for EGCB, and an Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP) tool for both EGCB and GTCL.

Expected Results by 2016

335 MW of electricity to be added to the national

grid by March 2015.

Gas supply to Siddhirganj power hub will improve
through a direct gas transmission pipeline from
Bakhrabad.
Power evacuation system completed by October 2013.
Institutional strengthening of the implementing
agencies (EGCB, GTCL and PGCB) continued.

Lack of serviced land and
quality infrastructure has
been identified as the two
recurring constraints for
private sector development
in Bangladesh. In
partnership with the UKDepartment for International
Development, The Private
Sector Development
Support Project (PSDSP)
facilitates investment to set
up Economic Zones for the
emerging manufacturing
and services sectors of the
economy with the aim to
create more jobs.

Scarcity and cost of land in Bangladesh, due largely to its topography as
well as the sheer size of its population, is systematically ranked among
the major obstacles for doing business. Much of the land is waterlogged or
occupied, either formally or informally. This is compounded by an inefficient
land administration system and deficiencies in urban planning making the
serviced land market highly informal and non-transparent. Access to reliable
power is another primary binding constraint to growth. Firms in urban areas
reported losing 12 percent of their sales to electricity outages (ICA 2008),
more than any other comparator country in the region.

The PSDSP promotes diversified private sector
investment by improving the business environment
and access to industrial land through Economic
Zones. The project is supporting the government
in facilitating the establishment of private economic
zones by providing financing for off-site and last
mile infrastructure, starting with the Kaliakoir HiTech Park. The PSDSP is also supporting firm
level training and process development to enable
better collaboration between enterprises in the
economic zones and their suppliers. The project
builds on Bangladesh’s previous assistance for
the country’s “Export Processing Zones,” which
today employ nearly 350,000 people, both in terms
of physical investment to create new zones as well
as institutional strengthening. The new economic
zones will provide infrastructure and streamlined
procedures to businesses, both in manufacturing and
service industries. Enabling increased investment
in business will create jobs and accelerate growth
to help Bangladesh reduce poverty significantly. The
Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) has
identified five additional sites, which will be licensed to
private sector developers as economic zones. Of these,
zones on the Mongla and Sirajgonj sites have been
identified as good candidates for taking directly to the
market under a competitive tender. Simultaneously,
the project is supporting feasibility studies for
proposed zones on the remaining 3 sites, Mirershorai,
Anowara, and Sherpur. The project continues to
assist the existing export processing zones and the
Bangladesh EPZ Authority in the areas of social and
environmental monitoring and compliance systems.
Among other initiatives, the PSDSP will assist with
establishing an Environmental/Green Zones Unit to
coordinate all the environmental issues in the EPZs.
Finally, given its mandate to strengthen sectors, the
PSDSP is currently focusing on the ICT sector and
has provided support for the Bangladesh Association
of Software & Information Services (BASIS) Institute
of Technology and Management (BITM).

Bangladesh possesses significant advantage in
the information technology (IT) and IT-enabled
services (ITES) industry due to the availability of a
large English-educated talent pool and competitive
labor costs. In addition, the industry possesses
particular strengths in niche sub-segments, such
as software programming, graphics and animation.
Given these background the Leveraging ICT for
Growth, Employment and Governance Project
aims to generate employment by providing IT and
ITES training to 30,000 Bangladeshi youth, diversify
exports and make public sector governance more
effective and transparent.

Bangladesh’s ICT industry has developed over the
past decade with telecommunications generating
total industry investments of US$ 4.5 billion since
2002 and providing about eight percent of the
government’s total revenue per annum. In stark
contrast, the IT industry has remained relatively
nascent with total industry output estimated at
US$ 300 million per annum. However, Bangladesh
possesses significant advantage that can help the
country quickly ramp up the availability of the talent
pool for the IT and IT-enabled services (IT/ITES)
industry and tap into the tremendous potential
of the global IT/ITES market for economic and
social development. Furthermore, the government
recognizes the need to leverage e-Government for
public sector modernization. However the public
agencies have systems and services that do not use

48

electronic services sufficiently in support of public
sector reform efforts. The lack of shared IT hosting
infrastructure, IT governance policies as well as
standards and structures has exacerbated this issue
and presents a major barrier to providing seamless
e-services.

standards. With these basics in place, the government
can improve their leverage of ICT for governance
priorities in the country - including on-going and
planned initiatives such as access to information,
national identification program, decentralization, and
local government development and service delivery.

Approach

Expected Results by 2017

The project is developing the IT/ITES industry
and establishing shared IT infrastructure and
services to support public sector modernization
and e-Government efforts. The project has a twopronged approach. Firstly, it seeks to create around
30,000 direct jobs and 120,000 indirect jobs in the IT/
ITES industry, which is expected to increase industry
revenue by over US$ 200 million by the end of the
project in 2017. These initiatives will help the country
tap into the vast potential of its youth in developing
skills such as software programming, graphics and
animation as well as simple data entry services.
Secondly, by using IT in governance, the project hopes
to significantly improve the government’s efficiency
and effectiveness by enabling all ministries/agencies
to have a shared data centre for hosting their systems,
exchange information and collaborate as well as
improve the public sector’s ability to secure data
through information security policies, guidelines and

30,000 direct jobs in the IT/ITES sector.
9,000 women will be employed.
US$ 200 million increase in IT/ITES
related revenue by 2017.

The project’s IT/ITES component is expected to
catalyze the growth of the IT/ITES industry so that
Bangladesh may partake more effectively in the global
knowledge economy. The e-Government component
will also provide the initial foundations for use of ICT
in the government, and contribute to improved public
administration and services in the longer term for
citizens of Bangladesh.

The 2004 floods highlighted the need for better
drainage and sewerage in Dhaka. With a
deteriorating urban planning environment, most
natural channels and wetlands that help Dhaka
cope with storm water flows have been filled in
with unchecked expansion of settlement and
accumulation of domestic and industrial wastes.
Meanwhile, water and sanitation in the Dhaka
slums was non-existent. The Dhaka Water Supply
and Sanitation Project (DWSSP) aims to improve
the sustainable delivery of storm water drainage,
wastewater and water services by the Dhaka
Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA),
which has the sole responsibility of providing
these services in Dhaka.

Dhaka’s growing population of 12 million is placing
serious strains on the city’s ability to provide basic
water, sanitation and drainage services to its citizens.
DWASA already supplies water to about 70 percent
of the population of the Dhaka City and its suburbs.
However, delivery of these services throughout
Dhaka is inadequate and uneven, and non-existent
in slum areas. Indiscriminate dumping of industrial
wastes and untreated sewage into the Buriganga,
Balu, Turag and Shitalakhya rivers continues to
strain an already overburdened sewerage network
and worsen the water quality of the surrounding
water bodies. Currently, the existing sewerage
network covers only about 30 percent of the city
area.

50

Towards the Future

DWSSP is supporting the ongoing rehabilitation work in
parts of the Khilgaon-Basabo, Abdullahpur, Shutivola,
Shahjadpur, Baunia, Digun, Mohakhali and Gerani
canals in a bid to improve storm water drainage and
minimize urban flooding, particularly in the eastern
part of Dhaka. Furthermore, installation of two major
storm water-pumping stations in the Rampura and
Kamlapur areas of Dhaka has begun. As part of
the initiative to improve the investment planning in
sanitation, particularly for the identification of key future
wastewater collection and treatment investments in
the city, the project has completed preparation of the
Dhaka sewerage master plan. Finally, the project aims
to design and implement a pilot to test whether water
and sanitation service can be provided to the urban
poor in selected Dhaka slums. Conceptual design,
identification of the targeted slums, assessment of
approaches to implementation, and assessment of
options for facilities management are now underway.

As the project faced initial delays, the progress and fund
disbursement rate has been low. After a review of the
project implementation, the Government of Bangladesh
and the World Bank decided to restructure the project
with reduced scope in order to bring implementation
back on track. The project restructuring, with an
extension of the project closing date, will allow the
stormwater pumping stations to be completed and
other key project activities – including the Drainage
Master Plan, the remaining canal rehabilitation works,
the redesign and preparation of a comprehensive
strategy for Low Income Communities water supply
and sanitation services, and key Dhaka Water Supply
and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) institutional
strengthening initiatives – to be finalized within the
extension period.

Chittagong is the second largest
city of Bangladesh with a population
of approximately 4 million.
The Chittagong Water Supply
Improvement and Sanitation Project
(CWSISP) aims to increase access
to safe water and sanitation in an
affordable and sustainable way, with
a special focus on slum areas.

Chittagong suffers from inadequate water production capacity and
sewerage systems. The port city’s water production capacity is only
40 percent of the estimated demand and the pipe network is run
down. Currently, about 45,000 households are directly connected
with treated piped water (out of about 600,000 households). A large
percentage of the city continues to access water through shallow
tube wells. The quality of this underground water is questionable,
with high salt and iron levels, posing health risks to the public. In
addition, very little investment has been made into sanitation and
storm water drainage since the late 1980s. Chittagong still does
not have a water-borne sewage system or effective storm water
drainage service. The Chittagong Water Supply and Sanitation
Authority (CWASA), lacks both the capacity and the finance to be
able to set in place these systems.

52

Approach

Results

CWSISP aims to increase the supply of safe potable
water to over 3 million people living in Chittagong
by installing a water treatment plant in Modunaghat
and by rehabilitating and extending the storage and
distribution facilities, especially in the under-served.
Furthermore, the project will support the updating of
Chittagong’s wastewater management and drainage
master plans. These plans will help identify priority
investments in Chittagong city’s drainage and
sewerage networks, for initiatives aiming to improve
the city’s urban environment. The project will also
support CWASA’s pilot expansion of water supply and
sanitation services in selected Chittagong slums,
bringing better services to an additional 250,000
urban poor. Finally, CWSISP aims to strengthen the
operations and institutional structure of CWASA by
increasing the sustainability and accountability of
operations, and improving coordination for water,
sanitation and drainage services between key
stakeholder agencies in Chittagong.

The project is half-way its original five-year
implementation period, with most of the major project
interventions yet to be started.

The project is a potential candidate for restructuring.
This will entail a reduction in the scope of investment
activities that can be implemented within a reasonable
extension period of 2 years. The exact scope of the
restricting will be assessed during the Mid-term
Review Mission tentatively scheduled for December
2013.

Despite challenging environment, Bangladesh
has been transforming its public procurement
environment for better outcomes in public
contracting with improved efficiency,
effectiveness, and transparency. The Second
Public Procurement Reform Project (PPRP
II) has introduced electronic Government
procurement and on-line performance
monitoring at four sectoral agencies that
accounts for majority of public procurement.
PPRP II is working to improve performance of
the public procurement system, particularly in
sectors that hand out large or many contracts.

Public procurement reform is a crucial building block
in improving public sector management, governance
and accountability. Public procurement expenditure
constitutes over 70% of the annual development
program in Bangladesh; thus procurement plays
a pivotal role in the development agenda of the
Government. It is well-documented that weaknesses
in public procurement have a cumulative negative
effect on investment and economic growth. Poor
public procurement skews investment toward areas
where rent-seeking is prevalent, rather than toward
the areas that need it most for poverty reduction and
development.

56

Approach
The PPRP II follows up the successes of PPRP I to
progressively improve performance of the public
procurement system, particularly focusing on large
spending sectors, ministries and agencies. The
PPRP II has piloted electronic procurement (e-GP)
and online procurement performance monitoring
systems (PROMIS) in four key government agencies,
namely the Roads and Highways Department, the
Local Government Engineering Department, the
Rural Electrification Board and the Bangladesh
Water Development Board. Electronic procurement
makes public contracting more accessible, more
secure and more efficient, thereby enhancing
the implementation of priority development
programs. Through the web interface, procurement
information becomes accessible and competition
and transparency are enhanced - making collusive
bidding difficult. In addition, the project has launched
a social accountability and communication campaign
through the public-private stakeholders committee

(PPSC) and has formed a government-contractors
forum along with behavioural change communication
campaign to demystify procurement at the grassroot level. It followed a three-pronged approach using
media campaigns, capacity building, and advocacy
interventions. About 2,700 participants from 64 districts
joined advocacy related activities and mass media was
used to create awareness and to popularize reform
agenda. This included TV and radio commercials,
popular songs, music videos, newspaper cartoon
series and a 6-episode reality show where bidders and
procuring agencies competed.

Results in Numbers
Electronic procurement rolled out in
government agencies.

4 key

65% small value contracts at decentralized

levels awarded within initial bid validity period in
2012, up from only 10% in 2007.

60% contracts awards in 2012 were published
at CPTU website, up from only 15% in 2007.

100% of bids invitation published in

newspaper in 2012, up from 70% in 2005.

2,900

Over
officials provided three-week
procurement training.

2,650 participants at local level joined district

level conferences on public procurement.

To ensure sustainability of the reform initiatives, an
additional financing of about US$ 35 million aims to
scale up capacity development beyond the four target
agencies and expand to health, education, power and
public works. Within three years, it is expected that
the four key agencies will have 100% implementation
of the e-GP and the procurement performance
monitoring (PROMIS).

A reliable and authentic national
identification system can serve as
an efficient, secure data platform
for delivery of multiple public
services. Having a comprehensive
national ID system is a prerequisite
for proper targeting and verification
of various public and private
service deliveries. Identification
System for Enhanced Access to
Services Project (IDEA) Project
aims to issue 90 million digitized
national identity cards with robust
security features.

Absence of a comprehensive and reliable national identification
system at times lead to non-transparency in service delivery and
often leads to many people being excluded, especially the poor. In
recent years, Election Commission Bangladesh (ECB) through its
National Identity Registry Wing (NIDW) established a national identity
(NID) database based on the internationally accredited electoral roll
database. They handed each registered adult a NID card. However,
these laminated cards lacked durability and still lent themselves to
forgery. Creating links with services and improving security fell on the
shoulders of the ECB; the verification services are full swing now only
with the National Board of Revenue.

58

Approach

Expected Results by 2016

IDEA Project aims to upgrade data quality, replace the
existing paper ID cards with more robust, hard-tofake national ID cards and support the strengthening
of the NIDW to administer the NID scheme, including
the issuance of NID numbers and the gathering,
updating, and usage of NID data. Furthermore, the
specially trained staff at the newly formed NIDW will
assist selected agencies in adopting e-ID verification
services and support the long-term effort to link the
NID and birth registration databases through the
adoption of the NID number as common identifier.
In addition, private sector service providers will have
reduced transaction costs due to greater reliability
and efficiency in identifying clients, maintaining
their own databases of customers, and fulfilling
know-your-customer legal requirements. Finally,
as evidenced by the success of the existing simple
NID cards, the distribution of quality NID cards as a
secure means of identity proof is a tangible measure
of recognition of individuals by the government and
contributes to increased confidence among citizens
in the state.

The introduction of a national identity card forms part
of the World Bank’s goal of helping the country fulfil
its ambition of becoming a digital Bangladesh. Instant
verification is the first step in providing everyday
services such as opening bank accounts, accessing
safety net programs or even travelling abroad. In time,
the improved efficiency in the delivery of standard
services will save the country and its citizens both time
and money whilst protecting people from identity theft.

Bangladesh has had a long history
of local governance stretching back
over 150 years, but it’s only recently
that these institutions are increasingly
realising their potential within the
development of the country. The Local
Governance Support Project II provides
block grants to Union Parishads to
spend at their own discretion as well
as provide logistical and technical
support. The programme now runs in all
4,504 Union Parishads (UP) throughout
Bangladesh empowering citizens
to decide what’s best for their own
communities.

Local institutions traditionally played a lesser role in delivering
services due to limited responsibilities, lack of adequate
resources and staff. Government services are often delivered
in a top-down manner, with little accountability to local
communities. Recent initiatives have shown that empowered
Union Parishads and engaged constituents can make effective
decisions both transparently and accountably at the grass roots
levels. Consequently, there has been a strong government-lead
push towards decentralisation.

Approach
LGSP II builds on the success of the earlier project.
Through LGSP, for the first time, Union Parishads
were provided direct block grants with full discretion
in deciding their spending priorities. $68.78 million
was disbursed to 4441 Union Parishads during 2010-11
and more than 35,000 community schemes generating
employment for poor people had been implemented.
These included construction or rehabilitation of roads,
culverts, drainage and embankment systems, water
and sanitation facilities, school and clinic repairs.
70,000 public officials, including UP Chairmen and
members are now trained in basic matters of local
government functioning. LGSP II continues to support
Government of Bangladesh’s decentralization efforts
through provision of direct block grants to Union
Parishads for financing local development projects.
With its nation-wide coverage to all Union Parishads,
LGSP II will benefit around 130 million people across
the country. The project supports rigorous audits

and open budget presentations to create greater
transparency and good governance. A key new feature
under the LGSP II is the introduction of performancebased grants in addition to expanding the amounts and
coverage under the current block grants supported by
initial project. Recognizing the major contribution of
women, in local level development, it earmarks about
30 percent of the grants for local schemes prioritized
by women. The Block Grants under LGSP II will support
all Union Parishads once they meet the minimum
transparency and governance conditions including
completion of local audits, conducting participatory
planning and open budgeting, and submission of
financial and progress reports. The new Performance
Grant will reward Union Parishads who demonstrate
improvements across a range of indicators including
in local revenue mobilization. Further mainstreaming
social audits across the country, strengthening the
UP Help Line and introducing Women’s Forums at the
Upazila level are some of the new social accountability
measures under LGSP-II.

Expected Results by 2016

130 million people across the country benefitted.
30% of funds to schemes prioritized by women.
Over 200 functional Upazila Women’s Development

People in the villages are no longer
helpless – we do not suffer in silence
anymore. We are now able to directly
influence how our community spends
our own development funds —

The momentum provided by LGSP II and the increasing
political focus on local governance is expected to
provide greater impetus to the decentralization
agenda in the country.

The World Bank in Bangladesh

61

STRENGTHENING PUBLIC EXPENDITURE
MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

Making public money count

Basic Information
Approval date: 23 September 2009
Total commitment: $112 million Trust Fund
(Jointly funded by UKaid, EU, DANIDA, CIDA and
Embassy of Netherlands; administered by the
World Bank)
Implementing agency: Ministry of Finance,
Planning Commission, Office of the Comptroller
and Auditor General and Parliament Secretariat

Accountable and transparent management
of public funds plays a critical role in
strengthening country systems in Bangladesh
and supporting implementation of national
development policies and poverty reduction.
The Strengthening Public Expenditure
Management Program (SPEMP) aims to
strengthen and modernize core institutions
of budgeting and financial management
in Bangladesh and acts as an umbrella
programme for various aspects of Public
Financial Management (PFM) reforms.

In the wake of a global financial crisis and poorer public
service and weaker public financial management, public
financial reinforcing and reform became eminent. Despite
a series of reform programs, public financial management
remains weak in many developing economies and Bangladesh
is one of them. Over the last two decades, Bangladesh’s
public finance policies and institutions have gone through
significant transformation through the implementation of a
series of first generation reforms. The upcoming agenda is
more challenging as Bangladesh aspires to enter the family
of the middle income countries and move into a higher growth
path. A developing economy would require more fundamental
institutional changes, deepening of the initiated reforms in
public financial management (PFM) and significant upgrade
of systems and skills in both central and line agencies,
including budgeting and oversight functions.

62

Approach

Results in Numbers

SPEMP is supported by a multi-donor trust fund that
aims to strengthen and modernize core institutions
of budgeting and financial management and improve
the effectiveness of formal institutions of financial
transparency and accountability in Bangladesh for
stronger and more capable oversight functions of
the government, ensuring accountability for the use
of public resources. Support is given through three
government-executed projects: Deepening Medium
Term Budgeting Framework (DMTBF), Strengthening
the Office of Comptroller and Auditor General
(SOCAG) and Strengthening Parliamentary Oversight
(SPO). There is additional support under the program
for analytical work.

ALL

57 line ministries with MTBF in place.

7500 officials have received PFM trainings.
20

high impact areas identified for pilot audits
using specialized methodologies.
A framework for OCAG to better support
Parliamentary Oversight Committees developed and
in the process of finalization.
Formal arrangement established with internationally
recognized PFM accreditation institution for
delivering accreditation courses at FIMA.

Strong, transparent and accountable
public financial institutions are essential
for Bangladesh to promote better public
services and improve the lives of the people.
The Deepening MTBF and Strengthening
Financial Accountability Project (DMTBF), the
largest project under the Strengthening Public
Expenditure Management Program, aims
to build a more strategic and performance
oriented budget management process, while
strengthening financial accountability across
the expenditure management cycle.

The last two decades have seen some notable improvements
in Bangladesh’s public financial management (PFM)
system, including the consolidation and amendment of the
regulatory framework, the computerization of the budget
process and the development and piloting of strengthened
expenditure management through a Medium Term
Budgeting Framework (MTBF). Despite good progress, the
overall financial management system for budget execution
and oversight remains process-intensive and primarily
based on manual work processes. Challenges also exist
with respect to developing adequate professional capacity
in PFM, especially in Line Ministries; enhancing access to
information and implementing credible sanctions when
transgressions occur. Bangladesh still needs to do more
to consolidate reform achievements towards greater
transparency and accountability in public finance.

64

Results in Numbers
All

57 line ministries with MTBF in place.

100 % compliance on budget calendar

achieved.

7500 officials have received PFM trainings.
Towards the Future
Since it might not be possible to complete all activities
within the project end date, discussions are on-going
with stakeholders and the Government regarding a nocost extension of the project.

The DMTBF project supports fundamental reforms
of operational budget management functions in
both central units and line ministries. Improved
budget processes and financial accountability are
likely to improve the allocative and operational
efficiency in public expenditure management which
in turn will enable better provision of key public
services in support of the Government’s social and
economic policy objectives. The project is moving
ahead with the development of a new budgeting and
accounting system - iBAS++. Coordination between
the Finance Division and the Planning Commission is
improving. Furthermore, new and modernized budget
institutions are being created in line ministries to
support a medium-term outlook on the budget.
The design of a new budget classification has been
decided to ensure compliance with international
standards. Moreover, the Government is enhancing
its capacity to manage debt through an upgraded
debt management system. A significant amount of

training has also been conducted to raise the level
of capacity and awareness of government officials in
modern public financial management.

Approach

The World Bank in Bangladesh

65

STRENGTHENING THE OFFICE OF THE
COMPTROLLER AND AUDITOR GENERAL

For more capable government oversight functions

Basic Information
End date: 30 June 2014
Total commitment: US$ 16.6 million
Implementing agency: Office of the
Comptroller and Auditor General

As part of the overall Public Financial Management
reform, steps has been taken to strengthen the Office of
the Comptroller and Auditor General (OCAG) to produce
and timely disseminate quality audit reports to the public,
meeting international standards that earn enhanced
responsiveness of the executives. The Strengthening the
Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (SOCAG)
Project, under the broader umbrella of the Strengthening
Public Expenditure Management Program, is enhancing
the professional capacity of the Office of Comptroller and
Auditor General (OCAG).

The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) function
has gone through a long way of transformation and
positive changes backed by extensive support from
several development partners. However, a lot remains
to be done to improve along several dimensions, in
particular three key performance indicators where
the record is still weak: scope, nature and followup to external audit. More specifically, C&AG audit
reports are submitted to the legislature more than 1
year after the end of the period under examination,
and the vast majority of audit reports are not taken
up by Public Accounts Committee or followed up by
the executive.

66

Approach

Results in Numbers

SOCAG aims to strengthen the independence and
effectiveness of the OCAG through the introduction of a
new audit law as well as increase the accountability and
efficiency of OCAG through addressing issues relating to
audit quality, coverage, timeliness, improved delivery and
deciding high level training needs. An action plan has
been developed for strengthening the OCAG’s relations
with stakeholders. Further, it has finalized the course
design for Chartered Institute of Public Finance and
Accountancy (CIPFA), and also selected 72 participants
for the first round of CIPFA certificate course. The
project has put in place a consortium consisting of an
international consulting firm - PKF (UK) LLP, the UK
National Audit Office (NAO), the Chartered Institute of
Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), and a team
of national consultants to provide the Management and
Implementation Support Consultancy services, which
expedited the project implementation. The Comptroller
and Auditor General (CAG) of India have agreed in
principle to conduct a Peer Review of the current systems
and practices of the OCAG Bangladesh. CAG Bangladesh
sent formal requests to NAO UK and CAG India for
establishing twinning arrangements.

A framework for OCAG to better support
Parliamentary Oversight Committees has been
developed and is in the process of finalization
through dissemination.
Formal arrangement established with an
internationally recognized PFM accreditation
institution for delivering accreditation courses at
FIMA.

Parliamentary Fiscal Oversight refers to
monitoring and scrutinizing of government
expenditure and making public officials
accountable for use of public funds. The
Committee on Estimates (EC) examines
budget estimates, while the Public Accounts
Committee (PAC) and Public Undertakings
Committee (PUC) scrutinizes the audit reports
and audited accounts of the central government
and public undertakings respectively. The
Strengthening Parliament Oversight (SPO)
Project aims to strengthen and modernize
of the actual workings of the three financial
oversight committees, enable the Secretariat to
strategically and effectively deliver the services
required by the committees and enhance public
access to information.

Despite a strong mandate, the legislative financial oversight
committees have had limited impact. This has been due to
outdated Rules of Procedure; the executive’s apathy towards
committee work, audit observations and timely disposal
of audit and committee recommendations; a culture
of defiance of legislative directives; limited operational
facilities and inadequate skills of Secretariat staff. Since
1997, no PAC reports have ever been placed before and
discussed in the Parliament. In addition, traditional practice
of focusing on past transactions, rather than advising
executive and CAG to address on systemic weaknesses
and improving quality of the audit reports, has further
constrained PAC from taking a forward looking approach.
Despite focus on past observations, successive PACs were
not able to bring down the accumulated back log largely due
to rudimentary approach to audit disposal. This indicates
ineffective function of key pillars in the accountability chain,

68

particularly relating to oversight of the executive
through independent audits and through legislative
scrutiny of external audit reports.

Approach

Results in Numbers

92% reduction of audit backlog.
350 reports reviewed and disposed.
5,550 objections settled.
Towards the Future
A tripartite dialogue involving the Speaker, Members
and Secretariat has been initiated to move forward
the ROP amendment. Active follow-up regarding the
unified Parliament has been initiated in order to provide
greater assurance of sustainability of project results
after the closing of the project.

The SPO project has made significant progress
in building consensus for amending the Rules of
Procedure (ROP) of Parliament. Study tours and
visits to well performing democratic institutions have
helped to form strong consensus among the members
that amendment to ROP is critical for improving the
efficiency and effectiveness of the financial oversight
committees in Bangladesh. The recommended
changes in the ROP are awaiting the formal approval
of the Speaker before being presented to the Standing
Committee on Rules of Procedure for its consideration
and recommendation to Parliament. The project
has been providing hands-on technical support to
enable the financial oversight committee Chairs
to report to Parliament on the most recent audited
Finance Accounts and Appropriation Accounts before
the dissolution of the current Parliament. The audit
reports on the Finance Accounts and Appropriation
Accounts of the Government had not been scrutinized

by Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) since
1995. To improve transparency and information
sharing, the project is also supporting a new website
for the parliamentary financial oversight committees.
The website, now under construction would post all
recent PAC, PUC and EC reports for public.

End date: 31 December 2016
Total commitment: US$ 36 million
Implementing agency: Ministry of
Environment and Forests, Bangladesh
Ministry of Forests and Soil
Conservation, Nepal

Overview

Challenge

South Asia is home to a diverse
network of natural ecosystems and
accounts for 13-15 percent of the
world’s biodiversity. The region hosts
the most charismatic and endangered
species, the Royal Bengal Tiger.
Because of its rich biodiversity, the
region has become a very lucrative
target of the illegal wildlife trade.
To tackle illegal wildlife poaching
and trade, Strengthening Regional
Cooperation for Wildlife Protection in
Asia (SRCWP) is helping participating
countries support capacity building
in wildlife protection and mitigate
the burgeoning threat to South Asia’s
biodiversity.

South Asia is home to over 65 percent of the 3,000 or so remaining wild
tigers. According to The Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network (TRAFFIC)
report, seizure of parts of more than 1,400 tigers across Asia in the
past 13 years reveals illegal trade of tiger persists. Illegal wildlife trade
is controlled by criminal gangs where flagship species such as rhinos,
elephants and tigers are being poached in one country, stockpiled in
another, and then traded beyond the South Asia region. Thus, no single
country can manage or eliminate the illegal wildlife trade or threats of
poaching on its own. Since wild animals cannot be confined to national
boundaries, a single country can neither manage contiguous crossborder wildlife habitat effectively. Thus, focusing on regional approach
to conservation of Asia’s flagship species would lead to improved
natural habitats for all species and, ultimately, increase productivity of
natural capital and healthy ecosystems for South Asia. Since many of
the poor rely on these natural habitats for their livelihoods, increasing
natural capital productivity would also have positive development
outcomes in the region.

72

Approach

Results in Numbers

The first World Bank regional project in South Asia,
the SRCWP follows a two-pronged approach: capacity
building to address the illegal wildlife trade through
regional cooperation; and habitat protection and
management to generate regional conservation
benefits and address the human-wildlife conflict.
The first component builds capacity to address the
illegal trans-boundary wildlife trade and aims to
bring about regional harmonization and collaboration
in combating wildlife crime through strengthened
legislative and regulatory frameworks, well equipped
specialized agencies and systems, as well as
relevant training and awareness programs for staff
across the range of agencies that contribute to the
enforcement of wildlife laws and regulations. The
second component is designed to promote wildlife
conservation in Asia through a virtual regional
centre of excellence, support control of invasive
species; improve existing park infrastructure; species
monitoring and recovery programs; preparation and
implementation of endangered species recovery plans;
protection of inviolate areas for species conservation;
implementation of real-time field based monitoring
systems; development of landscape scale imaging
platforms and strengthening enforcement of laws and
regulations and innovative research projects in wildlife
conservation. It will also fill crucial knowledge gaps in
addressing the regional threats to conservation. Two
countries – Bangladesh and Nepal – are participating
in the first phase.

able to detect and file
cases on wildlife offenses
and rescued nearly 2,118 wild animals from October
2012 to June 2013.
Undertaken sea turtle monitoring program that
successfully released approximately
hatchlings to offshore waters.

2,000

A National Tiger Recovery Plan has been prepared.

4 projects for management of human-wildlife

conflict, elephant conservation, and carrying capacity
assessment for ecotourism in the Sundarbans are
under implementation.

India has demonstrated its commitment to cooperate
in regional wildlife conservation through its bilateral
Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) relating to wildlife
and ecosystems with Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal
and is expected to collaborate on furthering the project’s
goals.

Start date: 6 November 2008
End date: 31 December 2015
Total commitment: US$ 184 million
Implementing agency: Ministry of Food;
Ministry of Agriculture; Ministry of Local
Government and Ministry of Water

Overview

Challenge

Bangladesh, due to its geographical location,
is in the frontline of the battle against climate
change. The country has faced over 200 natural
disasters in the last 40 years with increasing
frequency and intensity. Cyclone Sidr in 2007
was amongst the most devastating, affecting
nine million people across 30 districts in
southern Bangladesh. The Emergency Cyclone
Recovery and Restoration Project (ECRRP) is
helping the affected community recover from the
damage caused by the Cyclone Sidr by providing
support for infrastructure and agricultural
livelihoods. The project is also working for
better long-term disaster preparedness through
building and reconstructing of cyclone shelters
and embankments that will protect coastal
population from future natural calamities.

In the 20 years leading up to the turn of the century,
60 percent of the 250,000 deaths worldwide arising
from cyclones occurred in Bangladesh. Over time,
Bangladeshis have learned to deal with this threat, so
before Cyclone Sidr made land, an estimated 3 million
people were evacuated to safety. Nevertheless, the
category-4 storm and the accompanying tidal surge
caused US$ 1.7 billion of physical damage leaving
thousands without means of survival or a roof over
their head. An estimated 1.5 million houses were
destroyed, 1.3 million tonnes of crops were damaged
and 100,000 livestock drowned. Furthermore, the
increased salinity in the coastal plains, as a result of
flooding, rendered it useless for growing traditional
crops. Despite considerable progress by the Disaster
Management Bureau (DMB), future disaster risk
investments still remain low.

74

Approach
The role that stronger embankments and cyclone
shelters played in reducing fatalities in 2007 cannot
be underestimated when Sidr is directly compared to
similar natural disasters in the past. Consequently,
through ECRRP, over 240 cyclone shelters have already
been rehabilitated and another 230 new cyclone shelters
are being built. Embankments that were damaged are
also being repaired to provide extra protection in the
event of another tidal surge. ECRRP has helped restore
livelihoods by providing farmers with substantial
assistance such as tillers, livestock and saline tolerant
rice seeds, improved rice seeds during the Boro and
Aus crop season. Crop diversification alongside the
introduction of saline tolerant agriculture that can grow
in the new environment has also encouraged farmers
to take what seemed like an unworkable situation
and turn it to their advantage. Grain silos for the safe
storage of harvested crops as well as better protection
for livestock has further increased confidence in those
who live in vulnerable areas. A recently concluded
Household (HH) survey depicts that majority of the
households have reported increase in their income
in the past season due to ECRRP interventions. Also,

there has been 8% reduction in poverty incidence (42%
of HHs now below poverty threshold vis-à-vis 50%).
Meanwhile, the program is strengthening the capacity
of DMB to improve risk assessment, better cyclone
preparedness with a special focus on community level
interventions as well as help in preparation of future
projects on building embankments, shelters and rural
roads in disaster-prone areas.

22,045 households provided with livestock.
45,825 number of farmers trained.
38 new technologies introduced in crops, livestock
and fisheries areas.

While the last cyclone washed away
everything I built up for my family, I am
hoping that the BRRI 47 [salt-tolerant
rice] will help us get back on our feet.
The green saplings you see in front of you
will double our harvest and our income.
And hopefully the green will double our
happiness as well — Md. Harun Ur Rashid,

Towards the Future
Bangladesh has made impressive progress in disaster
management, in particular saving lives, since the tragic
1991 cyclone that killed over 140,000 people. However,
a lot remains to be done in terms of protecting
property and livelihoods. Additional financing is
under preparation to help build and rehabilitate a
large number of multipurpose shelters, meeting both
primary school and emergency needs.

Total commitment: US$ 71.25 million
Implementing agency: Ministry of
Environment and Forests

Overview

Challenge

Dhaka ranks highly amongst the
world’s major cities in terms of poor urban
air quality. Substantially reducing air
pollution could save up to 3,500 lives and
avoid up to 230 million cases of respiratory
diseases annually in Bangladesh. In
economic terms, this is equivalent to around
US$ 500 million in savings due to reduced
health care costs and increased productivity
per annum. The Clean Air and Sustainable
Environment project (CASE) is the first
program of its kind to tackle pollution from
two of the country’s biggest polluters,
brickfields and transport, as well as ensure
safe mobility for people in the capital.

Brickfields in Bangladesh expel over 9.8 million tons
of greenhouse gases into the air annually due to a
combination of old technology, weak environmental
legislation and enforcement and lack of corporate
responsibility. Meanwhile, growing numbers of motorised
vehicles, are clogging up roads and contributing further
to poor air quality. Besides the large number of cars,
the ever-present conflict between motorised and nonmotorised transport such as rickshaws means urban
traffic is often brought to a standstill for long periods
of times resulting in not only health and environmental
damage but huge economical losses dues to lost time.
What’s more, very few alternatives exist for pedestrians to
walk from one place to another, exacerbating the situation
further. Brick kilns and motor vehicles contribute to 60%
of fine particulate pollution in Dhaka during dry season.

76

Approach

Results in Numbers

CASE directly tackles pollution by encouraging the
adoption of cleaner brick manufacturing technologies
that require less energy such as Hybrid Hoffman Kilns,
Zig Zag Kilns, Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln and Tunnel Kiln.
The program is launching 20 demonstration projects
that will be a catalyst in the widespread adoption of
cleaner and efficient technology by entrepreneurs
motivated by both the economic and environmental
benefits. The project also encourages research into
technology alternatives to bricks such as microconcrete, and help the Government in strengthening
environmental laws that introduce stricter standards
and stronger “polluter pays” principles for industrial
pollution. CASE also provides support to the newly
established Air Quality Cell (AQC) that is responsible
for air quality monitoring, data analysis and reporting
and public information and administration. In urban
transport, CASE is promoting safe pedestrian mobility
in Dhaka by actively rehabilitating and improving
sidewalk and constructing foot over bridges. It is
also improving traffic management by improving
intersections, installing traffic signals and training
the police in the enforcement of traffic signalization.
Under the CASE project the feasibility of a 20 km
Bus Rapid Transit (or BRT) line from the airport to
Buriganga Bridge is being studied. BRT offers a low
cost high efficient solution to public transport in the
congested city of Dhaka.

11 Continuous Air Quality Monitoring Stations

(CAMS) installed in 8 cities to monitor major air
pollutants and to generate real time air quality data.

1

For the first time in Bangladesh,
clean technology
(VSBK) successfully introduced which emit around
60%-70% less particulate matter than the traditional
fixed kilns.
Construction of conversion of Fixed Chimney Kiln to
Zig-Zag Kiln completed.

20km of sidewalk and road improvement completed

in Mohammadpur, 14.5 km on-going in Tejgaon and
21 intersections being improved.

As more and more people come to Dhaka in search for
jobs, there is a growing urgency to tackle air quality and
transport related problems. Going forward, a public
transport network is being planned with the possibility
of a pilot corridor in the future.

Bangladesh is one of the most
vulnerable countries to the potential
impacts of climate change. To
address this challenge, Bangladesh
launched its first Climate Change
Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP)
in 2009 to build a program for
enhancing resilience to climate
shocks and facilitating low
carbon and sustainable growth.
Subsequently, the Bangladesh
Climate Change Resilience Fund
(BCCRF) was set up by seven
development partners to help
Bangladesh build the country’s
resilience to climate change.

Rising global temperatures are likely to increase the frequency and
intensity of cyclones in the Bay of Bengal as well as monsoon rainfall,
resulting in catastrophic floods in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna
Basin. Sea level rise and the consequent coastal flooding and saline
intrusion into aquifers constitute serious threats. The challenge of
climate change, aggravated by the country’s high population density,
is significant in view of the likely impact on people’s livelihoods. It
also impacts on Bangladesh’s capacity to improve its medium-term
growth performance and thereby lift some 55 million people out of
poverty. With a view to building a long-term program for enhancing
resilience to climate shocks, Bangladesh launched the BCCSAP at
the UK-Bangladesh Climate Change Conference in London. BCCSAP
identified six main pillars: (i) food security, social safety and health;
(ii) comprehensive disaster management; (iii) infrastructure; (iv)
research and knowledge management; (v) mitigation and low carbon
development; and (vi) capacity building to address climate change
impacts on various sectors of development.

78

In the wake of the London conference, a multidonor trust fund for climate change was proposed
as a modality for the development partners to
support Bangladesh in implementing the BCCSAP.
The BCCRF with contribution from bilateral
donors was set up in May 2010. The World Bank is
currently performing three functions for BCCRF:
trustee, task team, and secretariat. Under this
setting, seven investment projects, totaling US$ 148
million, are under implementation or preparation by
sectoral ministries. These include cyclone shelters,
agriculture, solar irrigation, afforestation, food
storage, community climate change, and capacitybuilding initiatives. Six research products are also
underway. In the longer term, the intention of the
Government of Bangladesh (GoB) and the funding
development partners is to build GoB capacity so
that the GoB will manage the BCCRF directly. The
fiduciary functions will remain with the World Bank.
To achieve its objectives, a BCCRF secretariat was
established at the Ministry of Environment and
Forests. The first phase of the capacity-building
project is under implementation, and a second phase

is in the pipeline. The Bangladeshi institution(s) that
will perform the task team function under BCCRF,
and also operate as National Implementing Entities
under the global climate change structures, will be
chosen during the capacity-building project.

Expected Results by 2014

61 new cyclone multipurpose cyclone shelters built
in climate-vulnerable areas.

Total commitment: US$ 33.8 million
Implementing agency: Bangladesh Forest
Department and Arannayk Foundation
under Ministry of Environment and Forests

Challenge

Bangladesh, in particular the coastal
zone, is most vulnerable to adverse
climate change impacts. Increasing
tropical storms, cyclones and surges
in coastal zones has prompted
the Government of Bangladesh
to mobilize multi – donors
through an innovative institutional
arrangement called Bangladesh
Climate Resilience Fund (BCCRF).
Under BCCRF, Climate Resilient
Participatory Afforestation and
Reforestation is a pilot initiative
to mainstream climate change
mitigation and adaptation challenges
into forestry in the country.

Absence of proper land use policy, planning and financial resource crunch
has given rise to many challenges for the forestry sector. The objective
is to build the capacity of a resource poor forest department to take a
lead in mainstreaming climate resilience in afforestation, reforestation
and forest management through active participatory planning with
communities. One of the challenges is how to mainstream climate
resilience in the large afforestation program through appropriate
species choice and forest management practices, in the context of
uncertain climate projections through community participation.

The project has multi-pronged approach. The project
aims to expand climate resilient afforestation and
reforestation; build livelihood resilience among the
vulnerable communities; and enhance the capacity
of the Forest Department. Using various climate
vulnerability indices, 10 vulnerable forest divisions are
identified and the communities and forest resources
in those divisions are mapped. In addition, the
project aims at creating local employment through
plantation and catchment treatment activities. This
will increase household income of beneficiaries
participating in alternative income-generating
activities. The project aims to harness scientific and
community knowledge to develop climate resilient
afforestation strategy and also develop vulnerability
profiles to identify the most vulnerable villages and
communities for implementing socio-economic or
livelihood resilience measures. An updated long
term forestry master plan with action plan will be
developed. Improving the capacity of government

institutions will lead to better forest resources
monitoring, assessment and climate resilience.

The Government has set
up a multi-donor trust fund
Bangladesh Climate Change
Resilience Fund (BCCRF), a
‘one-stop’ mechanism for
large-scale climate change
financing in Bangladesh. One
of the two windows of BCCRF,
the Community Climate Change
Project (CCCP) is allocating funds
on a competitive basis to nongovernmental organizations (NGO)
to implement community-driven
interventions that build resilience
to climate change impacts.

The frequency and intensity of extreme climatic events are expected to
increase in Bangladesh because of climate change, with devastating
economic, social and ecological consequences. The risks from
climate variability and change are geographically concentrated in six
specific regions of the country, which also have higher concentrations
of the poor—the subsistence farmers, the rural landless, fishing
communities, and urban poor. The areas are largely defined by
their physiology and ecology and have varying climate change risks.
The South, Southwest, and Southeast coastal region is at risk from
increasingly frequent and severe tropical cyclones, sea level rise
causing drainage congestion, and saline intrusion in surface and
ground water and soil. The Northwest Barind Tract is prone to drought
while the Northeast haor or freshwater wetland area is alternately
impacted by delayed rainfall or early flooding, and sedimentation
from erosion of the surrounding hill areas. On the other hand the
Central char and floodplains are prone to flooding, flash floods, and
river bank erosion; the Hill Tracts are prone to landslides; and the
urban areas are impacted by drainage congestion.

82

Approach
The BCCRF has two windows: one for funding largescale public sector projects and the other window
for allocating 10% of the funds to non-governmental
organizations (NGO) for implementing community
projects through CCCP. The Governing Council of
BCCRF designated Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation
(PKSF) as the implementing agency for funding and
overseeing NGO sub-projects. The US$ 12.5 million
project will focus on the three most vulnerable climate
zones in Bangladesh. Of this amount, US$ 10.4 million
will fund projects in saline affected coastal zones,
flood-affected areas and charlands, and droughtaffected or rain-scarce areas in north-western
Bangladesh. The remaining funds will be allocated
to monitoring, learning and sub-project refinement,
through knowledge sharing and dissemination of
lessons learned. The target Upazillas have been
identified based upon the degree of exposure to
climate risk, and level of poverty. The first call for
proposals from NGOs was on 17 November 2012 and
PKSP received nearly 500 project concept notes. After
meticulous review 30 concept notes were short-listed
for submission of detailed project proposal. PKSF
awarded sub-grants to 11 NGOs by August 31, 2013.
The proposals - 4 proposals are targeting salinity, 4
are targeting flood and 3 are targeting drought - were
reviewed by both internal and external technical

experts. Transparency was maintained at every step of
the project selection process. All relevant documents
for awarded full proposals are and will be posted at
the CCCP website. PKSF provided unsuccessful NGOs
clear indications as to which selection criteria they
had not fulfilled. The rejection criteria for the concept
note will be posted on the website. The selected
projects will be implemented by NGOs with active
participation of the local communities to implement
adaptation activities at the grass-root level. Some
of the proposed activities on the concept note are
introduction of climate smart agriculture to suit local
hydro-climatic regimes, protection and renovation
of water and sanitation facilities in the flood prone
areas, promotion of early warning system, climate
adaptive infrastructural development like raising
plinth level of house, community level maintenance
and reconstruction of small scale embankment, rural
road and adaptation in health sector - coping with
diseases caused by disasters.

Results in Numbers

500

Nearly
project concept notes received
following first call for proposals.

End date: 31 December 2020
Total commitment: US$ 375 million +
US$ 25 million Grant (PPCR)
Implementing agency: Bangladesh
Water Development Board

Overview

Challenge

Coastal embankments are an integral
part of the disaster risk reduction
program for Bangladesh. There is
clear evidence that embankments
provided an effective buffer
during the tidal surge resulting
from Cyclone Sidr. The Coastal
Embankment Improvement Project
- Phase I (CEIP-I) aims to upgrade
Bangladesh’s embankment system
by increasing the area protected
in polders from tidal flooding and
frequent storm surges.

Bangladesh’s coastal zone spans over 580 km of coastline, and
includes territory where 28% of the country’s population resides. A
higher percentage of the population lives below the absolute poverty
line in the coastal area than in the rest of the country. A recent World
Bank study on the cost of adapting to extreme weather estimated that
8 million people are currently vulnerable to inundation depths greater
than 1 meters due to cyclonic storm surges. In a changing climate
and without further adaptation measures, this number will increase
to 17 million people. Moreover, about 13.5 million persons would be
exposed to inundation depths greater than 3 m. There is an urgent
need to rehabilitate and upgrade polder protection and to enhance the
resilience of coastal areas to cyclones, tidal and flood inundations, and
salinity intrusion.

84

Approach

Expected Results by 2020

17 polders to be rehabilitated in 6 coastal districts.
760,000 people to be better protected within

CEIP-I will increase the area protected in selected
polders from tidal flooding and storm surges;
improve agricultural production by reducing saline
water intrusion in selected polders; and strengthen
Bangladesh’s capacity to respond promptly and
effectively to crisis or emergency. The project will
rehabilitate 17 polders in six coastal districts Bagerhat, Khulna, Satkhira, Barguna, Patuakhali,
and Pirojpur. The rehabilitated polders would provide
direct protection to the 760,000 people living within the
polder boundaries. This in turn will enhance people’s
livelihoods through increased agricultural production
during normal weather and reduced loss of life, assets,
crops and livestock in the event of a disaster. Around
8.5 million people living in these six coastal districts
would also benefit through agriculture development,
employment and food security. The project will help

reduce poverty and stimulate economic development
by facilitating the growth of farm and non-farm
activities in the coastal area.

Start date: 23 June 2010
End date: 30 June 2016
Total commitment: US$ 115 million
Implementing agency: Social
Development Foundation

Overview

Challenge

Bangladesh has steadily improved its
social and economic indicators. Still more
than half of the country’s population lives
below the poverty line. Floods and cyclones
frequently cause severe damage to lives
and livelihoods, especially the poor women
who remain particularly vulnerable. The
Empowerment and Livelihood Improvement
Project, now known as Nuton Jibon aims
to improve the livelihoods, quality of life
and resilience to climate variability, natural
hazards and other shocks of the rural
poor, especially the poorest and vulnerable
households.

About 47 million people still lives in poverty and 26 million
people in extreme poverty in Bangladesh. 80 per cent of these
people live in rural areas where employment opportunities
and adequate basic services are constrained. In recent
years, several major natural disasters like Cyclone Sidr
(2007) and Cyclone Aila (2009) as well as seasonal floods
and drought have had a significant accumulated impact
and have likely further exacerbated the poverty, especially
in the vulnerable northern and southern districts where
60 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line.
The vicious circle of disaster and poverty, whereby each
new calamitous event deepens poor people’s vulnerability
and slows development, is a major constraint to poverty
reduction in Bangladesh.

88

Approach
The Nuton Jibon Project consolidates and scales up
the activities of the predecessor pilot Social Investment
Program Project (SIPP). SIPP gave more than 3.5
million people in the poorest and most disaster prone
districts of Bangladesh, the chance to dream of a
new life through better community infrastructure
and productive investments, such as drinking water;
access roads and bridges; sustainable livelihood
investment and direct job created for youth through
skill development training and project facilitation. The
project demonstrated that the poorest villagers have
the capacity to prioritize needs, manage resources,
and implement subprojects — particularly women
who occupied 80% of decision-making positions.
Nuton Jibon Project has scaled up the pilot initiative
from 07 to 16 districts and from 1407 to 3262 villages.
As such it benefited from the solid momentum on
participatory targeting methodology and community
driven approach which were already in place. It
also benefited from the inclusive, transparent and
accountable planning tools and governance structure
developed under that project. Nuton Jibon carries
on where SIPP left off by empowering the poor and
strengthening local governance. The project focuses
on reducing vulnerability of the poor to risks, in
particular those associated with natural hazards and
climate variability, by enhancing skills to increase
employment opportunities as well as support

We used to eat only once a day. Now
we can eat three times a day, and I
can afford to educate my daughter

small-scale demand-driven community investment
sub-projects that are prioritized, implemented and
managed directly by the rural poor. For long-term
sustainability of livelihood activities, Nuton Jibon is
also creating links with local Government and local
services providers, including the financial sector and
markets.

Results in Numbers
Around

654,411 households benefited.

75,500

beneficiaries mobilized into Nuton
Jibon Groups (NJG).

223,000

NJG members accessed the
Shabolombi Fund and started income generating
activities.

17,500 youth received skill development

training, of which 14,835 employed.

2,302 community infrastructure sub-projects

completed.

Towards the Future
The project is being restructured to address the
mismatch in funds allocation between the current cost
and actual project needs. It is expected that project
funds will be exhausted a year before the closure of
the project on June 30, 2016. Hence the preparation
of the follow up operation may have to be initiated on
due course for smooth continued implementation of
project activities.

— Musammat Ruma Begum of Pakula North
village in Jamalpur district has improved her
family’s fortunes by participating in a local
community development scheme.

End date: 31 December 2015
Total commitment: US$ 29.29 million
Implementing agency: BEPZA, Coordinating
Ministry: Ministry of Labour and Employment

Overview

Challenge

The northern areas of Bangladesh are
amongst the poorest in the country. Women
in particular have difficulty finding alternative
employment, as they are isolated from the
major industrial centres. The Northern Areas
Reduction of Poverty Initiative (NARI) project
aims to economically empower poor and
vulnerable women from the north western
districts by facilitating their access to jobs in
the ready-made garment sector in Dhaka and
Chittagong. The project helps the vulnerable
women to overcome the difficulties of
migration and to get a chance to successfully
adapt to city life.

The garments industry in Bangladesh has played a significant
role in providing economic benefits to poor and vulnerable
women. Control over income also provides women with a
viable alternative to early marriage that in turn contributes
to reductions in fertility. Today, around 80 percent of the
garments workers are women. Yet, the number of poor
women from impoverished northwestern districts joining
the garments sector is much lower than the number of poor
women from other parts of the country. Female garment
workers constitute a highly vulnerable group: young, poor,
unskilled, sometimes illiterate, and often single women in
a society dominated by strong gender hierarchies. With few
support systems in place, the first few months in the city
and at the factory are the most hazardous, deterring many
women in desperate need of work.

90

Approach
The NARI project (nari means women in Bangla)
aims to provide training, transitional housing,
counselling and job placement services in garment
factories to migrating poor and vulnerable women.
About 10,800 women will be recruited on a selfselection basis from five monga-prone districts in
northern Bangladesh, namely Gaibandha, Kurigram,
Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, and Rangpur. After screening
the selected women will be given an orientation
course so they can make an informed decision about
beginning a new life in one of three Export Processing
Zones (EPZs) in Dhaka, Karnaphuli or Ishwardi. The
women will be settled into newly built complexes,
with transitional housing facilities at dormitories
and training centres, giving them time to develop
social networks and support systems. The training
centres will accommodate cohorts of 300 trainees; the
trainings will be for three months period and technical
curriculum would include training in cutting, sewing,
and quality control. This training will allow women to
enter factories as semi-skilled workers rather than
unskilled workers. The trainees will also receive life
skill training covering topics such as adjustment to
city life, savings and remittances, safety and security,
rights and responsibilities at the work-place, finding
appropriate housing, contract negotiation, health and

fertility. The dormitories attached to the training centre
will accommodate 600 women for a transitional period
of six months at a time. Finally, the women will be
recruited into garments factories at the EPZ through
an employment bureau at each training centre that
continually assesses the needs of the labour market
at the EPZs and links the beneficiaries to prospective
employers.

Expected Results by 2015

10,800 women will gain formal

Around
employment.

3 months trainings to be provided.
6 months transitional housing facilities.
Towards the Future
NARI is a pilot project which aims to train and place
women in factories inside three export processing
zones that have better conditions and safeguards for
workers. If the pilot project is successful, based on a
rigorous impact assessment, the plan is to expand it to
other parts of Bangladesh and other sectors.

Accommodation and safety are the main
issues stopping more girls from coming.
The project will have a very good impact
in encouraging women to come forward
and work. I would definitely recommend
my sister to come if she gets these
benefits that we never got — Tania, 19-year
old, working at a garment factory.

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